


The Dark Lord

by TheMuseInMe



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: 15-Year-Old Harry, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Child Abuse, I'll add more as I go along, M/M, Slytherin Harry, Torture
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-21
Updated: 2016-06-26
Packaged: 2018-06-09 19:53:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 31,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6920785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheMuseInMe/pseuds/TheMuseInMe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if they had it all wrong. What if the Dark Lord isn't who everybody thought he was. What if it was all part of a plan. After finding harry abused by his relatives Severus takes him in. The single move that has domino effect, threatening to unravel decades worth of carefully laid out plans.  Slytherin Harry, The Silver Trio more warnings inside.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Man in Black

"Up, up you get"

a high pitched voice screech woke harry up. He was having a nice dream, something about a flying motorbike. He'd ask Alex about it later. He gave a yawn and rubbed sleep out of his eyes.

Putting on his glasses, well not as much glasses as a bunch of tape holding two lenses together, he blinked for a few seconds as his surroundings came into focus. The lock clicked and Harry hastily scrambled up, hitting his head in the process as the door banged open.

He avoided looking at his cousin who was standing outside with a leer on his face as he quietly walked past him into the kitchen. He received a sound kick to his shin and winced a bit before limping to the kitchen as fast as he could.

He entered the kitchen to find his relatives already in their usual positions. His uncle was reading newspaper while his aunt occupied the chair opposite to him, pretending to read her oh so interesting gossip magazines while actually spying on neighboring Mrs. Appleby.

The floorboards creaked as Dudley walked in and sat on a chair, worrying the wood with his weight. Few minutes passed in silence as he waited patiently for his aunt. Harry saw Dudley tapping impatiently on table and tired to move away, it was never a good sign.

Unfortunately, the fat blob noticed and gave him a gleeful smile. Harry clenched his teeth when Dudley stomped on his foot under the table. Dudley narrowed his eyes when the freak didn't make sound, He stomped harder. Harry's eyes watered as he hissed. Two set of eyes turned at him and glared.  
"S-sorry" His uncle grunted and returned back to reading paper while his aunt still stared at him. Harry squirmed uncomfortably under the gaze, she sneered and picked up a rather long list lying on table in front of her and dropped it in tiny hands of the boy from above, as if she'd catch a disease if she touched him.

"No food until the chores are completed" She snapped when she noticed the boy's gaze lingering at sandwich in Dudley's plate.

Harry nodded, he quickly rolled up sleeves of his shirt which was much bigger than size, washed his hands extra carefully, he knew how aunt petunia was obsessed with cleanliness, even a single speck of dirt was enough for her to decide that he needed a lesson on cleanliness (which usually ended with his stomach being clean and empty of any food).

He scanned the list and his hands went autopilot. he chopped, diced, tossed perfectly while pouring his aunt and uncle tea (2 milk and 2 sugars) and juice (orange with extra sugar) for Dudley, lowering the flame he quickly fetched the mail and news paper, he knew that he wouldn't get food if the breakfast was anything less than perfect, and he'd rather have some food as he hadn't had any the day before.

He was nearly done with sausages when he heard Dudley whine  
"Mum, I want pancakes today"  
"Anything you want , Dudders" Petunia said in an overly sweet voice.

Harry scowled, he swore that pig did it on purpose.  
"You heard him boy" Uncle Vernon barked from behind his newspaper .  
Dudley smirked and harry sighed, that smile didn't bode well for him.

Do he decided to make Dudley's favorite chocolate chip pancakes, as a ceasefire or rather a peace offering. Harry sighed and got to work, those pancakes weren't going to make themselves after all.  
\--------------------------------------------  
"Get the groceries first, money's on the table" Aunt Petunia said once they were done with the breakfast.

Harry's face brightened a bit, this meant he could meet Alex today. He quickly did the dishes, wiping his hands to pants he grabbed the money on the table and hurried out. Once at a safe distance away from number 4 he pulled out a book he was hiding underneath his shirt, there was one advantage of having to use Dudley's old clothes, they were big enough to fit two of him so harry had no problem hiding his books inside. He glanced at the copy of 'The Feynman Lectures on Physics' once before tucking it safely inside the bag. He wanted to read it more thoroughly but Dudley had nearly found it once already and he'd gladly tear it to pieces just to spite harry.

Harry ran to the library hoping he'd make it in time for Alex' shift. All harry knew of him was that the blond was a college student and worked part time at the local library. Harry remembered the first time he met him.

 **Flashback**  
Harry sneaked into the library to hide from Dudley and his gang. He was sure Dudley wouldn't search for him in here. His uncle, and by extension his cousin and his uncle firmly believed that only nancy boys read books so Dudley wouldn't be caught dead anywhere near them.

Harry wasn't sure what 'nancy boys' were but he liked reading books, with them he didn't have to worry about being a freak or anything else for that matter. So library served as a perfect hideout for harry when 'harry hunting' got too intense. Harry had sneaked here quiet a few times, so he already knew where he wanted to go. He sneaked around the librarian's desk towards the science section. It was deserted, as always. Harry quickly found the books he wanted, settling down in a corner, he was quickly engrossed in reading.

Harry was so engrossed in reading that he didn't notice someone walking down the aisle.

"Sneaky, are we?"

The voice startled harry and he suddenly jumped.  
"I-I was just reading"  
He looked at the boy in front of him, he was tall and lanky, big enough to turn him into a special batch of 'harry pulp' if he wanted to.

The boy clearly didn't believe him. Harry looked himself, he was wearing a far too big shirt folded at the sleeves while his pants were basically tied to his waist using a worn belt and was cut crudely near his ankles. To be frank, looking like this harry wouldn't believe himself. The boy probably thought he was going to steal the books.

The boy picked up the book and saw what harry was reading "if you were just reading you can tell me about theory of relativity" he said sarcastically, as if a 9 year old could understand college level physics.

"It states that Energy equals mass times speed of light squared" he muttered.

The boy boy just stood there with his mouth hanging open, seeing the opportunity harry dashed past him and ran for his life. A moment later he heard footsteps following him, the blond boy calling after him to stop and harry ran even faster but the other boy was taller and caught him near the entrance.

"That's some legs you've got there kiddo" He stopped for a moment to catch his breath.  
"Here" Harry stared nervously at the book and then at his face and then back again. Then he took it.  
"You can return it anytime next week"

Harry nodded still staring at the book  
"I'm Alex by the way" The boy offered his hand  
"I'm Harry" Harry wiped his sweaty palm to back of his pants before taking his hand.  
"Thank you" He muttered before running back to the street.  
**/flashback**

Despite his initial skittishness Alex turned out to be a nice guy, plus he let harry borrow the books.

"There you are, I was waiting for you" He found him waiting at the entrance.  
"Sorry" He handed the book "It was really interesting, thank you"

"How many times do I have to tell you kiddo, you don't have to thank me" He mock scolded him.  
Harry gave him a sheepish smile.  
"I gotta run" He said as he still had to go to the grocery store which was in the other part of surrey, but harry could still make it back in time if he ran fast enough.

"Whoa there birthday boy, i got something for you" Seeing the surprised look on the teen's face he guessed that like every year for past 6 years harry had forgotten about his birthday. That was so typical Harry.

"I know how much you fuss over presents so I made you something myself" Alex took a small box from his bag and gave it to Harry  
"Open it"

Harry opened it to find an over sized muffin with 'lil einstien' written messily with cream frosting  
"Happy birthday, little einstien" Alex grinned and Harry gave him a tight hug.  
"Thank you" He whispered  
He winced when Alex hugged him back, the older teen pushed him back a bit and inspected him.  
"Your cousin' still bullying you?" Harry nodded. Alex noticed the tension in his shoulders and decided no to push. Last time he did harry ran away and didn't show up for months.

"Still don't need me to whoop his ass?" Harry shook his head.  
"If you say so. Now tell me how is it, I spent entire day trying to bake that thing"

Harry stared hungrily at the muffin, torn in half about whether to eat it or not. It was wrong, he hadn't completed his chores yet, but then his stomach strongly disagreed.

"Come on kiddo, I know it doesn't look like it, but it is edible, I checked"  
Harry took a tentative bite, and gods it felt good. it was sweet, delicious and something he hadn't had since last Christmas when the old lady at the store gave him one.

Instinctively he stuffed rest of it in his mouth before it could be taken away.  
"izz relly goo"  
"I'm going to pretend that's a compliment" Alex grinned, "Now run along" He ruffled Harry's hair.  
Harry gave him a bright smile and running towards a shortcut that'd save him some time, completely unaware of two beady eyes watching him.  
\----------------------------  
Harry put the rather heavy groceries bag on the table. Another task done, maybe now he would be allowed some food. His gaze lingered at the leftovers on the table before he looked expectantly at his aunt.

"Weed the garden first, boy, and water the plants too" Came a disdainful reply.  
  
With disappointment clear on his face harry trudged towards the garden. He looked at the large flower bed he had been working on for past week, he might as well complete it too. Sighing he walked back to the garden shed in back yard. His stomach growled.  
"I know, I'm hungry too" He glowered at it.

Harry bit his lip as he decided what seeds to plant. He thought tulips and carnesias would look good but his aunt had asked for, well petunia's. He shrugged as he picked up seeds his aunt had told him to, after all it wasn't like it was his garden or anything. He was making his way to the fertilizer when he was thrown against the wall.

Harry gave a pained moan when his arm was twisted behind his back.  
"I don't have time for this Dudley, if you let me go I'll convince aunt to let me bake a chocolate cake tonight" Harry said quietly, not that Dudley would let him go without at least a punch or two.  
"I know what you did today, you filthy faggot" He pressed harry even harder against the wall.

"I don't know what you're talking about" He really didn't know what Dudley was blabbering about, He knew enough to know that what Dudley said was meant to be an insult apart from that, not so much. 'Faggot' was probably a new insult he had picked up, his knowledge in the area was sadly lacking as there was unsurprising lack of people willing to talk to him in their high school, especially after Dudley made the wrestling team. He hissed when Dudley twisted his arm even more.

The black haired boy panicked when a hand crawled to front of his worn out jeans. Reflexively he stomped hard on Dudley's foot and shouldered the fat blob, yanking his arm free. Dudley toppled over and fell with a yell and a loud thud.

Harry rubbed his arm, it hurt like hell. He stilled when he saw Uncle Vernon standing in the door, his beady eyes narrowed at him.  
"He's flithy faggot, dad. I saw him with a boy today" he accused "Freak gave that poofter something he stole from our house" harry was stunned, he didn't know what to say.

"I didn't steal anything, It was just a library book" Harry cried, realizing what had happened, but looking at his uncle's rage purpled face he knew it was too late. Vernon walked up to him and Harry knew there was going to be hell to pay.  
"I swear I didn-"  
THWACK  
"Shut up you lying little piece of shit"  
"The room NOW" Vernon barked.  
"I'm sorry, please" Harry whimpered, instinctively trying to back away.  
"You will do as you're told" Vernon grabbed his hair and pulled it hard. Harry instinctively arched and slapped him hard enough to make him see stars. Vernon then released his hair and grabbing the scrawny teen by his collar he more or less dragged him across the backyard. As his uncle dragged him to the basement many didn't know the house had, Harry dazedly wondered what punishment sort of punishment he'd get today.  
\------------------------  
"You know what to do" Vernon growled. As always during his 'punishments' there was a creepy maniac gleam in his uncle's eyes that made Harry shiver.

Harry quickly stripped and set his clothes aside. It was standard procedure for all his punishments so the clothes won't get dirty. He stood quietly by the ropes hanging from the ceiling, his breath ragged in anticipation of what was about to come.

Vernon tied the boy's wrists to the ropes so that the boy's toes were barely touching the floor. He had specially made this arrangement, this way the ropes cut quiet deeply in the boy's bony wrists when he tried to curl into a ball, taking away his only defense.

"You know you deserve this punishment, don't you?" Vernon spoke from somewhere behind him.  
"Answer me you fucking faggot" The sudden whip caught Harry unaware  
"Y-yes sir, freaks deserve to be p-punished" He gasped through the pain  
"That's a wrong answer, you ungrateful pouf"

Harry swallowed thickly, wrong answers meant punishment until he got it right. he was filled with dread when he heard creaking of his uncle's 'tool' cabinet. He heard sound of his uncle's feet approaching and tried to anticipate next blow, it was dark and without his glasses he was basically blind.

"That will be 20 blows" The man barked and harry tightened his body just as the first one hit. It helped with the pain, something he learned through experience.

"You're not counting" The voice reminded his after a few solid blows and Harry started counting.  
after 20 blows Vernon slid the cane roughly across the teen's back. Harry arched trying to get away from it, he whimpered and sagged when the rope dug into his bony wrists.

Vernon leered as he watched freak's pathetic attempts "Answer again, you thieving little bastard"  
"I deserve this because I'm a pathetic faggot" Harry said, desperately wishing he said the right thing.

"That's right" Vernon leered at him "and you deserve 50 lashes for that, filthy little slut" he caressed the whip "We'll start over again each time you miss the count"

Harry hissed when the first one hit suddenly, it hurt hell lot more than usual.  
"O-one" He gritted through his teeth, forcing himself to remain still through the pain as his body instinctively tried to curl into a ball. He bit his cheeks to keep from screaming, screaming only made it worse.

The whip drew lines of fire on back, though Harry sure it had hurt a lot less when Aunt Petunia had held his hand on the stove for burning breakfast. Somewhere around 10 he tasted blood, it was metallic and kinda tangy, Harry thought it wasn't half bad.

Near 20 he felt blood dripping down his thigh. It was going to be right pain to get the stains off, Harry thought. Around 30 his back felt like it was on fire and someone had rubbed chilis on it afterwards. After sometime it hurt so much that Harry almost couldn't feel the pain. He felt strangely disconnected from his body, as if watching everything from a distance, it felt like one of those horror movies he'd sneaked glimpses of on telly. Around 40 black spots started dancing across his vision, If he squinted his eyes hard enough it almost looked like monkeys dancing, Harry thought it was funny. He counted fifty and hung there limply. The rope dug deeper into his wrists, it hurt too much to even care.

Vernon untied the ropes and the freak slumped to the floor in a heap.  
"That will teach you how to be a greedy stealing whore" He hissed  
"Back to the closet" He barked. He gave fucking fag a solid kick when he didn't move. The freak brought it on himself, he sneered as the pathetic faggot wobbled up.

Harry's arms were on fire, probably due to all the blood rushing back to his arms. He walked towards his clothes but for some reason they were running away from him. Harry chased after them, it was fun when he was not the one being chase, he gave a laugh which came out as a wheeze.

Vernon's face went purple in rage when he heard the freak laughing. Fucking faggot enjoyed it, he thought furiously as he reached for the cane.

Harry never saw it coming, he was still wheezing and wobbling drunkenly as he got dressed. An unimaginable pain erupted across his left shoulder and his knees his the floor. The ruthless onslaught kept coming and for the first time harry desperately hoped he'd die. Maybe then he'd get to meet his mom.

He was sure he heard someone singing a soft lullaby as he slipped into the comforting darkness.  
\--------------------------  
Severus Snape was a greasy dungeon bat, and a psychopath. or so people assumed, just because he preferred company of potions and cauldrons, most of the times. But there were moments in Severus' life when he realized why he preferred company of potions and cauldrons over people, and this was one of them. What in the nine hells had possessed him to come visit potter of all people. Just because he had dreamed of lily asking him to check on her brat didn't mean anything, even it he had the some dream three days in a row. Damn it, he was never going to drink scotch with Minerva again. That women coupled with scotch always resulted in some very Un-Slytherin decisions.

He glared at it, right from the manicured lawn to living room, it looked disgustingly perfect. The Dursley' s may not be filthy rich but they certainly lived very, very comfortably. Severus just sat there, waiting for potter who was surely off doing mischief which his own little group of marauders. He got up to leave, but then thought against it, lily was one persistent witch. Apparently she had retained the quality even in his subconscious.

Severus sat back on the couch impatiently tapping his fingers against the arm. potter clearly lived like a pampered brat he was, so much for Albus' plan of not letting the fame get into his head. Well even if the old codger didn't exactly say those words but the sentiment was the same. Albus' plan had come back to bite him in his arse when potter's guardians refused to admit him to Hogwarts, instead opting for a private instructor. Good riddance, Severus thought. It at least saved him the headache of teaching one more moronic brat with ego size of Hogwarts.

"It's getting rather late" Severus noticed it was almost suppertime "Shouldn't Mr. Potter be home by now?"  
"Looks like he'll be staying out late" Vernon said "Maybe you could drop by some other time"

And go through the misery of coming back to this blasted house again, no thank you very much.  
"No," Severus declined. "As much as I would dearly love to leave you in peace right now, I will wait for Mr. Potter to return. If I could have a cup of tea?" He noticed the worried looks the two Dursleys exchanged, and wondered what that could be. Probably nothing more than the thought of having one of them staying for the afternoon.  
\--------------------------  
"Will Mr. Potter be arriving soon?" He broke the long held silence after the dinner was done. It was a wordless affair. The Dursley's at least had the decency to give him a plate, even if nobody actually invited him

"It's almost dark" Severus hated to state the obvious but he'd been stuck in this blasted house that smelt nauseatingly of cheap cleaning detergent.

"I doubt it, he must be spending the night" Petunia said cautiously  
"Will he be calling you if he does?" Severus huffed  
"No" came the reply

Right back at you, you damn old coot, thought Severus. The brat was just like potter, a stuck up pampered egocentric prince who didn't have the decency or the common sense to use at least a telephone.

"It's getting very late," Severus observed. He hated stating the obvious, but with Muggles, one could never be too sure. Well, with any non-Slytherins. He didn't want to speculate what house Petunia or Vernon would get if they could be sorted.

Damn that potter spawn, it was very late and Severus had an important potion he needed to tend to, and the potter brat was nowhere in sight. Well, if lily returned to his dreams tonight she was going to get an earful.

"Perhaps I should return tomorrow, kindly ensure he stays home" Damn his stupid conscience, it must be all tainted by all the Gryffindor company he had recently (three long hours with Minerva), although he partially blamed her scotch too (it did taste too... Gryffindor...ish).

The look on petunia's face as he got up from the couch was of imminent relief. Severus was sure she was going to incinerate that couch as soon as he left. Severus felt like he could sympathize, he too was going to incinerate these uncomfortable muggle clothes once he reached home. It felt like that obnoxious smell had clung to it, he sneered it still smelt cheap and something else.

He stopped dead in his tracks. It was faint, but it was definitely there. He was disturbingly familiar with the smell while in dark lord's service, but that was dark lord's prison, and this was potter's home. Severus remembered the furtive glances, nervousness exchange of looks, maybe there was something to be concerned.

"What?" Petunia snapped when he stopped suddenly.  
"I think I forgot my wallet" he used the first excuse he could think of (A very lousy one at that, not that he'd admit it).  
Petunia narrowed her eyes disapprovingly and stomped back. Severus quickly scanned the small hallway. he found a tiny spot of brownish red near floor board of cupboard door.The smell seemed stronger near it too.

He raised his hand, his heart racing as he placed it on the knob.  
"What are you doing" petunia shrieked, apparently back from the search. And she didn't seem happy.

"Trying to open a door if you can't see that" He mono toned.  
He heard the floorboards creaking as Petunia's whale of a husband approached the scene. He quickly tightened his hand on the knob and turned it.  
It was locked .  
Vernon approached them with a entirely smug look on his face.

Severus rolled his eyes, as if this was going to stop him. He wouldn't even require his wand for this. He concentrated a bit and the knob rattled in his hand as it came off and the door creaked open. Sudden smell of blood assaulted his senses.

He cast a quick lumos and wished he hadn't. The sight in front of him was appalling. The small space was contained racks full of muggle cleaners, mops and other cleaning appliances. And in middle of it lay a small bony figure of a child, on thin blankets , a ratty old pillow and a baby blanket with barely distinguishable H on its corner. It was all covered in blood, not to mention all the grime and filth on it.

The boy himself was covered in rags with atrocious stains on them. He was wearing something that once would have resembled to a hoodie. The hoodie was sizes too big and his trouser was crudely cut near ankles.

Severus forced back the bile that rose in his throat. He noticed a small paper taped to a wall. harry's room, it read a child's messy scrawl with crayons. He felt like something ice cold just stabbed him in heart. it couldn't be, he took a step back, guilt flooding his chest.

"You listen to me Mister --" A hand was placed on his shoulder threateningly.  
He threw the hand along with its owner on the wall, he pointed his wand at the fat bastard.

"You will leave me alone" He growled, his magic crackled around him making him look more intimidating. Without even waiting for the reply he turned and scooped the child in his arms. The boy was light too light, a near fifteen year old should weigh more than this.

"You can't, you don't have the right" Petunia shrieked as he turned to leave.  
"I'm well within my rights Dursley actually, but you of all people are in no position to preach me. Now move" He growled at the whale blocking his path.

He nearly hexed the man when he continued standing there stubbornly. but it wouldn't do for him to be sent to Azkaban for using an unforgivable on Dursley.  
"I believe I told you to MOVE" He cold with barely restrained fury.

Vernon sneered as he stepped aside, he knew he was no match for the man.  
"Don't think that you've heard last of me, no one gets away with this, not when I'm involved"  
He quickly left before he did something stupid and incredibly tempting. Walking past the lawn on the road and turned in on the spot.  
\------------------------  
As much as it pained his dignity he had no choice, so he knocked or rather banged at Minerva's door with his foot. The door opened to reveal a rather sleepy looking witch dressed in tartan.

"Oh, Severus what- are those jeans?" The witch suddenly sounded very much awake.  
"Now's not the time woman" the said man in jeans hissed.  
Minerva noticed the small bundle in the potions master's arms and stepped aside.

With a quick wave of wand Severus transfigured the couch into a examination table. He set the boy on table, behind him Minerva gasped as recognizing the lightening shaped scar.

"Is he?" she said even though she knew how much Severus hated being interrupted. The man gave a small nod as he called for an elf and gave him a series of instructions.  
The elf disappeared with a pop and a bag appeared on the table.

Severus turned towards the small, broken figure. the first thing he did was to banish the rags the boy was wearing. Sweet Merlin, this was going to put his training as a battle healer and potions master to test.  
\----------------------------  
Severus was absolutely appalled, scars marred every inch of skin hidden underneath the clothing, but the back was absolute worst, the wounds were open and festering.  
He immediately grabbed a vial of pale blue liquid from his bag.

As he methodically cleansed the wounds Severus plotted the ways to kill Dursley's. As slowly and painfully as possible. There was a small whimpering sound and Severus decided that death would be too merciful. By the time he was done with the sick bastards they would beg him for death, he thought furiously.  
\-----------------  
Minerva sat quietly as Severus tried to drink his way through the third bottle of Firewhiskey. Well, someone was getting a pretty damn hangover tomorrow. She got up and took the bottle away when he reached for the fourth one. He glared at her.

"Severus Tobias Snape" wow, she must be really angry "You drinking through my liquor cabinet is not going to solve problems"  
"Emptying yours is not going to help either" she said when he got up. The dark haired man threw her a dark look and flopped back on the couch.

"Severus" she placed her hand gently on his shoulder.  
All the emotions he had washed away with alcohol threatened to resurface. The damn Gryffindor knew him bloody too well. He put his face in his hands and rubbed it.

Somehow the single act made Severus look more vulnerable than the Scottish witch had ever seen him. She gently squeezed the shoulder before letting it go. Knowing that saying anything would make it only worse, she settled back on the couch. They sat like that for some time.

There were millions of thoughts racing around in his head, it felt like it'd explode. He couldn't deal with this right now.  
"There's a potion i need to-" He got up from his chair.  
"You will sit down and start talking, unless you want to spend rest of the week as a rubber duck" she said quietly, a bit too quietly. Severus sat down, he had no doubt that he'd be spending the week as she promised if he didn't.

"It's complicated"

"Severus Tobias Snape" he cringed at the tone, he hated how she could make him feel like a first year even after so many years "3 fractured ribs, 15 broken bones, 5 incorrectly healed fingers. and that is just the start of long list of the child's injuries, not to mention a lot of scars no human being should have. that child could easily pass for an ten year old for Merlin's sake" she finally exploded "this is not how I expected to see a child, lily's child no less, who I was thoroughly assured that lives with a very loving family. so Merlin help me Severus, either I get an explanation or I will hex you into the next century" the Scottish witch waved her wand threateningly.

Severus gave a helpless sigh. He noticed the amber liquid in the bottle on the table, he figured it'd be easier to let alcohol do the talking. Besides, it just might be enough to tick Minerva off and he wouldn't even have to do it.

The older witch cleared her throat when he reached for the bottle. He silently dared her to say anything as he filled his goblet. anything at all. She didn't take the bait and Severus shrugged, he might as well do it then.

He took a large swig and felt the liquid pleasantly burning down his throat. solemnly he began narrating the events of the evening.

The was palpable silence in the room when he was done. the Scottish witch just sat there appalled.  
"But albus said-"  
Severus let out a colourful string of words, which included headmaster, a goat and a few other choice words. were he a student Minerva would have personally scrubbed their tongue with soap. well, Severus may not be a student, but Minerva knew just the thing. Guilt drunk professor or not she would not have this kind of language.

Severus shuddered as he felt a unpleasant feeling burn the buzz of him, his eyes popped at the end.  
"I hate that"  
"I know" she smiled

"I should leave" he got up, guilt clawing at his chest now that the effect of alcohol was gone.  
"Severus, it's not your fault. don't beat yourself over it"

Severus nodded blandly, pushing the old memories behind the shields as scooped the child in his arms and walked towards the fireplace.

"The wards won't accept him without your or headmaster's" he sneered at the word "explicit permission" Minerva nodded "I grant Harry James Potter permission to reside at Hogwarts" the wards hummed in agreement.

" thank you, could you pass on the message to our dear headmaster that I am not to be disturbed for next few weeks unless he wants to spend rest of his life as a goat" he said as stoically as possible.  
"of course Severus, I'll make sure the fool understands" She assured him in a tight voice.

" the floo, offcourse, will be open for you, though I'd advice against visiting, as we don't know how he'll react to strangers, more than one strangers " he corrected himself "last thing he needs is that old coot playing him" with that he disappeared into the floo.

Meanwhile Harry dreamed of a strange castle, and a man clad in black.


	2. Reputation of the Dungeon Bat

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 400 hits already!!! You guys are absolutely adorable. Please review, I'd love to hear what you think of the story. Also this chapter has been beta'ed by Dinky_Dog, who put up with quite a lot of my grammatical shenanigans. Thank you all for reading!!! Now as promised...

It was warm, cozy and comfortable. Harry felt like he could sleep forever in a bed like this....

he stilled and snapped his eyes open. Last time he had tried to get into a bed was when he was four and had a nightmare, his uncle had then quite thoroughly reminded him that freaks did not deserve to sleep on a bed. He tried to jump off the bed, but managed to stumble and land on floor with a loud thud.

He quickly got up and took in his surroundings. The first thing he noticed was that he was not at number 4, Privet Drive; he was in a dark room, much bigger than his cupboard, bare except for the bed which he was previously occupying.

He waited for his uncle to come and punish him, for getting in bed, even if he didn't know how he got into it. But then, a lot of freakish things kept happening around him... Maybe it was because he really was a freak, at least his aunt said so. Uncle Vernon always threatened to send him to the orphanage, said that he costed them too much. Maybe after his last bout of freakishness he had gone through with it. Harry remembered his last punishment, he shuddered and stuffed it in a box and pushed it to the farthest corner of his mind, where he'd never find it again. He studied the room again, it was sort of old. The orphanage would make sense, uncle Vernon always said that orphanages were old, rusty buildings.

Harry squeaked when the door slowly opened and a tall man walked in. The man wore long black clothes that kinda swished, like the ones from that story book Alex gave him years ago. Harry gulped as he looked up at the man "ple-please don't punish me, s-sir" he pleaded.

Harry had never been so scared in his life, At least with his uncle he always had an idea what the punishment would be, but he had no idea what punishment this man would dish out. He started shaking with fear when the man suddenly stopped, his coal black eyes studying him intently. Harry  scrambled back, until his back hit the wall and he knew that there was no escape. Severus noticed the child's shaking hands as he raised them in front of him. An unconscious habit to protect his face from the supposed punishment, Severus decided.

"I-I can do lots of chores" the child quickly added after a moments hesitation on Severus'  part.

Severus wanted to break something, preferably Dursley’s neck, the blasted boy sounded almost proud of himself.

"No one is going to make you do chores, harry" Severus added the last part with a bit of hesitation.

"It’s okay" Harry whispered, "you don't have to lie". Severus frowned at the response.

"I know I’m a freak and I have to earn my keep" Harry’s voice was barely above a whisper.

Severus cringed at the mechanical tone in the child's voice. He took a step in the child's direction but stopped when he noticed how badly the child started shaking. Severus sighed, it was going to be a long night.

 

\--------------------------------------------

Severus stared at the child's sleeping face. Harry looked so peaceful, as if he hadn't gone through all those horrors. Severus knew that the child did not believe him, frankly he didn't expect him to, after all it was a lot to take in. When Severus gave Harry some potions, the boy had promptly declined saying that medicines were too costly for him to pay back, leaving Severus speechless.

He then had managed to extract some information (with considerable amount of persuasion, if one might add) from the child, which made his blood boil in anger. He had expected some amount of psychological abuse, it usually came with the physical form of it, but the abuse Harry had to go through… Just thinking about it made him sick.

Severus sighed and tucked the child in, explaining these things to Harry was like explaining a blind man how to paint.

" Good night, child " he whispered, quietly closing the door and heading straight for the liquor cabinet. He was going to need copious amounts of the amber liquid in his system before he could sleep tonight.

\----------------------------

Harry woke up to find himself in the bed - again. The first thing that he noticed was that nothing hurt, and it felt so good that he almost wanted to cry. He searched around for his glasses and found them on the bedside table. Strange, they were not there last night. Suddenly he gasped, he could see clearly without his glasses! He quietly studied the frame held together by a lot of tape.

It felt strange to feel so.... normal. The man must have spent a lot on him, those weird tasting medicines (not that Harry complained) the man had him gave yesterday certainly looked expensive. Harry reckoned he should start working, regardless whatever the man said. Nothing was free. Ever.

"Better start working, the chores aren't gonna do themselves" he muttered deciding to make breakfast first, after all who didn't love a good morning breakfast?

He quickly got off the bed and headed for the door when he felt hunger gnawing at his stomach. Ignoring it with practiced ease, Harry turned the knob. He was a bit surprised to find it unlocked, but he shrugged it off and quietly slipped outside.

Harry silently studied the room, he couldn't help but feel like he was in some sort of Victorian era manor. Everything was massive and made of stone. It was sort of cool. There was even an oil painting of an empty chair, weird but Harry thought it was still cool. Harry did a double take when he noticed the shelves alongside the walls of the rooms. He had seen so many books only in Surrey’s library. He could already feel himself salivating. If only Alex was here… He gave a sigh. With one last longing glance towards the books, he moved on his quest to find the kitchen.

\-------------------------------

An hour later...

"No, no, not there, to the right of the pepper pot. The other right!!!"  Harry exclaimed. The bowl filled with onion dip shifted to the directed location. "All  pans to the sink" he ordered; the pans flew over and piled over neatly into the sink.

Harry clapped, it was like magic, well it was magic if he was to believe the man in black. He still thought it was some sort of dream. The pans made a preening motion and Harry giggled. There was a sudden crack that startled Harry.

"What you's be doing here?" a child like creature demanded. It looked at the small feast on the table and then glowered at him.

"I made breakfast" Harry offered nervously

"Master  Severus" the creature shrieked and disappeared with a crack.

\-------------------

Severus woke up due to loud screaming. Startled, he got up and found the source to be his very own house elf.

 "what is it Mipsy?" he grumbled "if you just woke me for no apparent reason I’ll..."

"I’s be knowing" she cut him off " you's be finally making a potions that be's using Mipsy as ingredients"  she completed mockingly, waving it off.

 Severus glared at her and she glared right back. He huffed, after spending years working for him, her tongue could cut through steel.

 "Why did you wake me up" he cast a quick tempus " at bloody 6:30 in the morning??" he glowered at her.

 "How many times I’s being telling you's master Severus" she huffed "you's be not getting rid of me"

 Severus sighed, not this again. He had inherited Mipsy from his family, and thinking that she was getting quite old, he had offered to get a new elf to help her. Unsurprisingly, she had quite a fit and kept doing so every time she thought that Severus was trying to replace her.

 "What is it this time?" he asked, sighing.

"There be's a little boy working in the kitchens" she scowled, as much as an elf could anyway.

 

Severus cursed as realization dawned on him. He quickly put on his dressing gown while explaining the situation to the elf, who eyed him suspiciously.

"His relatives treated him worse than death eater's elves"  he said finally, it was probably the only way she would understand.

 "But he be's their own blood" she gasped, horrified.

"I know, so please do curb your sharp tongue around him" he instructed "and stay out of sight until I tell you". Mipsy nodded quietly. He quickly grabbed his dressing gown and headed towards the kitchen.

\---------------------------------

Harry stood there fidgeting. He cursed himself, of course he would be punished, just because the door wasn't locked didn't mean he had free reign to do whatever he wanted. Severus entered the kitchen to find the boy standing near the sink wringing his hands like an blasted house elf.The next thing he noticed was that there was a small feast sitting on the table.

 

"Did you make all of this?" he asked carefully.

Harry nodded nervously.

"To pay me back?"

The boy stilled and gave a small nod.

 

"No one's going to punish you" he assured and motioned the child to take a seat.

 

Harry gingerly sat on the chair waiting for the blows to come, he relaxed a tiniest bit when none came. He watched as the man bustled around, quickly preparing tea.

 

Severus put the bowl of Poppy Pomfrey’s  'special broth' in front of the boy, it was good for body and helped kick start weak digestion system so it could directly handle normal food instead of building up on a diet. Whatever good it did to the system, Severus could attest to the fact that the stuff was pure evil, that. He motioned at Harry to continue, and the boy promptly dug in. Severus just watched as the boy ate, no, devoured the stuff in record time, a minute to be precise.

He scraped the bowl clean without even blinking at the taste.

 

Severus felt pity for the poor boy "it was necessary, so that your digestive system can handle normal food" he tried to explain. Harry just nodded… sure whatever. He got food, taste didn't matter.

 

"So time for some real food then". Severus started serving the food. The broth ensured Harry's increased appetite, so he piled the plates with bit of everything.

 

Harry just sat there stunned, staring at the man. The stuff in the bowl was usually what the Dursleys gave him for the day and usually Harry could make do with it.

 

He wanted to argue that he hadn't earned more food but his stomach disagreed. So he started devouring everything on his plate before it was taken away from him.

 

"Slow down, slow down, no one's going to take it away". Severus offered him a glass of water when he choked.

 

The boy still went at it like a hungry hippogriff, but it was better than previous rabid version, so Severus started with his own breakfast and gave appreciative nod as soon as he had first bite.

 

Harry ticked nervously, the Dursleys never gave a positive response to the food he made.

Severus noticed it, and tried to hold back any other comments of appreciation as he went through the meal, as the child was obviously uncomfortable with it.

 

They ate the rest of the meal in silence. By the time his plate was empty Harry felt like he'd burst if he ate another bite.

 

\-----------

 

Severus led the teen to the living room. " _Aplombus_ " he muttered discreetly; after all, he needed the boy to be trusting and most important of all, not nervous and twitching for what was coming.

 

Harry sat down on a sofa in the room with books. He felt suspiciously relaxed, all his thoughts about punishment blew away like a warm breeze in summer.

 

Severus sat there, wondering how to open the conversation. As much as he'd like to, ignoring wasn't going to make it go away. Through years of unwanted experience with child abuse as head of Slytherin, if there was one thing he had learned was that no matter how painful, talking helped.

 

"You want to talk" Harry accused, catching the dark haired man off guard. Severus gave a careful nod. Aha, he knew the breakfast was just a trick to make him let his guard down.

 

Harry glared at him; despite the fact that the man in front of him looked a lot scarier than his uncle, at the moment he couldn’t care less.

 

Severus sighed, if he was going to stab himself, well, he might just as well complete the job and drive the knife through.

\----------------------------------

Harry continued glaring at the man; it was the first time he did that and hadn't been beaten blue and black  immediately. But truth to be told, he would have much preferred his uncle's belt (even the buckled end) over all this prodding the scary looking man was doing.

 

He once met this lady at the school who asked him all sort of questions and said it'd be okay, Harry had fallen for it. The next day onwards he had became the local nut job. Not to mention he'd been limping around for the entire week because he 'accidentally fell' off the stairs.

 

The box creaked open slightly and Harry tugged at his hair harshly to distract himself from the whispering voices. He buried his face in his knees and rocked back and forth, it was a bit comforting. Ignoring the voices he shut the box with all his might. "You owe him" it snidely reminded him and Harry gave up. The box opened and it all came flooding back in.

\------------------------

Severus was worried that he may be rushing things a bit, but there already were three owls hooting impatiently in his study and a letter from Minerva saying that there was goat roaming in the castle munching lemon drops. He'd give it a few days at most before that damn old goat figured out a way to get in.

 

The black haired teen started glaring at him and he relaxed a bit. About time, he thought. He didn't think Potter had a way to let out those emotions – anger, especially - constructively or destructively. The glaring green eyes and stubborn look reminded him of Lily. He remembered the last time he met her. It was at the old park near their childhood home, the place where they first met.

 

* flashback *

 

There was a tell tale sound of apparition and he looked up. She still looked the same old Lily, even after all these years. In her arms was a small baby wrapped in blanket. He opened his mouth to apologize.

 "I forgive you Severus, I did a long time ago" she said ruefully. He opened his mouth and closed it again, instead choosing to study the child. It bore distinct Potter traits, wavy black hair and all. Except for his eyes, which he had inherited from his mother.

 

"He is searching for us Severus " she whispered.

"I know" he replied quietly. He did; after all, it was his own damn fault.

"We are not getting out of this Sev, not this time" she smiled, wistfully looking at the baby.

"Don’t " it was all he could manage.

"His name is Harry "  she smiled and thrust the child in his arms.

He held the bundle awkwardly, and the bright green eyes staring at him.

"Look after him, Sev" she said .

"What? " he asked.

"Both you and I know, what the Dark Lord wants, he gets” she continued "promise me that you'll protect him, after I'm gone"

"But I-"

"Promise me Severus " her voice was almost pleading.

"I promise"

 

*end flashback*

 

A terrified whimper brought him back to the present, Severus looked up to find the child rocking back and forth on the couch, green eyes staring vacantly at nothing. He reached out but stopped when the boy flinched and gave a blood curdling scream.

\-----------------------------

Severus knew it was a terrible, terrible idea, but he had to do it anyway. Besides, it was the fastest way he could help the boy. Fumbling around for his wand, he pointed it at the child. He hesitated a bit before whispering " _legilimens_ ".

 

Severus hit the ground hard, he got up, brushing the dust from his robes he looked around. Merlin, the child's mind was a right mess. He was in a small, cramped space; Severus recognized the small cupboard where he had found the boy. In the centre lay what looked like a big cardboard box. There was a maelstrom of memories originating from it.

 

That explained it. The boy had literally bottled up and suppressed his emotions, and while that was some impressive occlumency, it wasn't good in long term. Severus was surprised the boy hadn't lost his mind already.

 

Carefully, Severus reached out and touched a dark smoky tendril of memory. Everything around him melted and morphed until he was standing in a small room. He looked around and recognised the Dursleys’ living room.

 

Severus noticed two children playing; he immediately recognised Harry because of his famous scar, the second one was probably Petunia’s son. Harry looked to be  around two, he was playing with building blocks, placing them haphazardly over one another to form an tower like structure. He obviously was using magic to keep the structure stable, because there was no way it would stand otherwise.

 

Soon the tower became tall enough that Harry could not reach the top to add any more blocks, the child then made a sort of pouting expression, his eyebrows scrunched together, and his lower lip was quivering, the child was about to cry when the blocks lying here and there levitated, and started arranging themselves on the top of the tower.

 

Severus gaped; with this much accidental magic the boy should be knocked out cold for hours from magical exhaustion, but the toddler just gave two year old equivalent of a squeal and started clapping with those chubby hands. The other child saw what Harry did, and started wailing when he couldn't do the same. Petunia, who was sitting on an nearby couch, her nose buried deep in some gossip rag looked up at the sound. She gasped and quickly checked the windows to make sure that no one noticed anything, then she picked up harry by his scruff and hit his bum hard thrice in quick succession.

 

She then dragged a crying Harry through the hallway, dumped him in the cupboard under the stairs and locked it. Harry banged the door from other side and wailed for 'mommy'.

 

"I’m not your 'mommy' " she snapped kicking at the door. The noise quietened down to sniffling sobs.

 

\---

The surroundings melted and morphed. Severus was now looking at an older Harry, probably 5 years old, standing in front of a room full of kids. First day of the school, Severus guessed.

 

"I’m freak" he said nervously "I live with my aunt and uncle… My chore list takes the whole day so I really don't have any hobbies"

 

The whole class was stunned, the teacher gasped and quickly took him to principal’s office.

 

Severus watched silently as the Dursleys explained the principal about their nephews 'lying habits'; apparently the Dursleys were a well respected family, so the principal chose to believe them and took no further action. He sort of knew what was going to happen once Harry reached home, but he was still appalled by the punishment that bastard of an uncle inflicted on the child.

 

He first whipped the child raw, then kept throwing punches and kicks like a madman at the curled ball on the floor. Without any word he then picked up the child by his hair and them dunked his face in the sink full of water.

 

The boy struggled to remove the hands on his neck as black spots started dancing around his vision. Vernon allowed him air for a few moments and again forced him back under water. This continued for what felt like an eternity, by the end of it Harry was just hanging there limply without any resistance.

 

Severus buried anything that even resembled an emotion deep behind his occlumency shields as the bastard brutally banged Harry's head repeatedly on the edge of the sink and threw him across the room.

 

"Another word, boy, and your next punishment won't even be comparable" he sneered " no food for a week, now back to the cupboard you little 'freak' "

 

\------------------

 

Severus watched. He watched as Harry was punished for getting better marks than Petunia's son, he watched as Petunia burned Harry's hands because he burned breakfast at the age of 6, he watched as Harry was punished for taking the leftovers of the food that he prepared because he was too hungry, he watched the punishments become increasingly more gruesome, and he watched as jealousy and bitter resentment turned into acceptance and fear.

 

Nails dug hard enough in his palms to draw blood as Severus watched the last memory, Harry's punishment before Severus found him. Everything grew hazy as the memory Harry passed out, the link broke and Severus stumbled back into his own mind.

\----------------------------

He didn't even realise when he'd gotten Harry in his lap. They just sat there, tears streaming down his face as he gently ran his fingers through Harry's hair. Severus considered himself a stoic man, and the only time he remembered crying was when he saw Lily's lifeless form lying on the floor. But this… Hell, this could even make the Dark Lord empathetic.  

 

"You care" Harry mumbled looking up at him.

"Huh?" Severus was usually more articulate, but all his logic seemed to fail in front of Harry.

"No one cries if they don't care" Harry answered.

"Yes, I care" he wrapped his arms around the small form, enveloping him in a hug. The boy hesitated for a moment before returning it.

 

After years of resentment towards Dudley, Harry made himself believe that he didn't deserve that hug, that pat on shoulders, but now he had it and it felt so good that he started crying, like a pathetic child.

 

Severus tried not to make a face, his robe going to be full of snot. He shrugged the thought away.

 

" shh, it’s okay. Let it all out" he whispered, gently cradling the child.

\--------------------

Severus burst in, slamming the door angrily. A white goat was munching disgusting yellow sweets out of a bowl. It looked up and stared innocently at him.

 

"Don't give me that look, you old goat" he hissed

"meeeh"

"And stop eating those hideous sweets", Severus mildly wondered how in the Merlin’s sodding way had Albus managed to eat all that sugar and keep all his teeth. There was only so much magic and potions could do to keep one's teeth from rotting.

"meh" the goat gave him a long stare and resumed eating off the bowl. Severus finally had enough when he saw some very questionable black pellets.

 

He drew his wand and pointed it at the offending creature.

"That was low Albus, even for you" he said to the old man in bright orange robes.

"I assure you that it was not intentional, not in the least" the man's goat nose and ears twitched as he put on his half moon spectacles.

 

The man popped a few yellow candies from the half empty bowl

"Sherbet lemon?" he offered. The potion master's lips curled in disgust.

"I’ll take that as a no" he chuckled, and popped a few more himself before finally putting away that muggle offense towards human taste buds.

 

"Severus, my boy-"

"Cut the crap Albus, and I'm not your boy"

 

He sighed "I had no idea, Arabella kept watch on him, she told me he was always quiet, respectful and a bit on thinner side but healthy. She did mention an occasional bruise or two, but Harry does have a cousin his age and boys play rough. I didn't think there was anything to be worried about" he sat down waiting for the onslaught and sure enough it came.

 

"Do you have no sense of responsibility? You damn old goat. Off Course he was respectful and quiet, you old coot. They beat it into him" Severus finally exploded

"And that old codger of a woman needs to get her eyes checked " he sneered. He caught the guilty, helpless look on that damned old fool's face and it made him even angrier.

 

How dare he look like so helpless. He had no job looking like that when Severus had to be angry.

"You promised me Albus, you FUCKING promised"  Severus had never seen the man so vulnerable.

 

"Do you know how I found him, Albus?" he hissed "I found him inside a broom closet, broken and battered lying in his own dried blood" Severus felt a tiniest bit of satisfaction when colour drained from the older man's face. "You promised you'd protect him albus"

 

Severus looked at the man, Albus suddenly looked a frail old man. All those years suddenly seemed to catch up with him.

"He needed the protection lily's blood provided, with all of Voldemort’s follower's still on loose" he said quietly "I thought I was doing the right thing"

 

"Oh really, do tell how that worked out for you" Severus said sarcastically

 

Silence was heavy in the air, Severus finally had enough he was never going get anywhere with this. He stood up ready to storm out.

"How is he?" those pale blue looked up at him.

"Don't you dare Albus, don't you bloody dare" Severus said furiously "That child's a mess, and in no shape for you or your mind games"

 

"You forget Severus, I'm still his guardian" Albus replied firmly

"Is that a threat, Albus?" Severus narrowed his eyes

"That depends" the man sat up straight, adjusting his half moon spectacles, all traces of previous emotion gone.

"He just a bloody child, Albus. a bloody scared child" Severus yelled

"And our only chance" came the grave reply

 

The silence in the room was palpable.

"I've informed Molly and Arthur. They would be happy to take him out of your hair" he said finally

"I'm sure they would" the potions master sneered "but the last thing he needs is a loud obnoxious group of redheads and an overbearing mother hen"

 

"What do you suggest then?" Albus had an inkling of suspicion where this was going.

"I think it's better if mr. potter stays with me"

The staring match went on for a few moments.

 

Albus sighed, he knew that look; Severus would go out of his way just to defy him. That, and he was blaming himself for the child's fate. Merlin, one would think being headmaster meant he'd not have to deal with childish tantrums.

 

"Fine" he was never going get anywhere with Severus, not like this. Besides it was only for a few weeks. He opened a drawer and handed over a tiny golden key.

 

Severus gave him a curt nod and with that the dark haired man left.

 

The headmaster sighed and rubbed his temples. this was going to be a bloody nightmare.

\--------------------------------------

Severus hurried towards the bathroom when he heard the splashing noises. He couldn't help but smile when he saw the black haired teen teen playing innocently with the water and a small rubber duck. it was a bit odd sight, a 15 year old boy splashing water and playing with rubber duck. Severus could not imagine the Dursleys letting the boy play, or enjoy anything really, so he let the child play for a few more minutes before he called him.

 

The boy was out of the bathroom so fast, Severus didn't think it was humanely possible. his hair was still wet, so Severus took out his wand and cast a drying charm on it. Within seconds Harry’s hair stood up, making his head look like a frizzy soccer ball. He'd forgotten about the infamous Potter hair.

 

Harry touched his hair, "that's so cool"  he grinned, but quietened down when got the feeling that the man in front of him didn't share the sentiment. Severus’ lips twitched; it was, as Narcissa would put it,  adorable as pigmy puff, but he had a reputation to uphold.

 

"I can comb it down" Harry said weakly, not that his stupid hair'd ever listen to him.

"If it's anything like your father's we'd have more luck teaching flobberworms to fly" and as soon as those words left his mouth, Severus regretted it.

"You knew my dad?" those big green eyes stared at him expectantly. Severus was very much tempted to say no, but that damn green eyes made it impossible to say no. Besides, this gave him a perfect opportunity make the boy aware of his story; he needed the child to trust him, what better way to ensure it, really?

 

"How about I tell you about it over some lunch" Harry nodded eagerly; he knew his parents weren't just a couple of drunks. They must have been really cool people, maybe like the professor. Severus noticed the child's excited face, well maybe it was better if he omitted a few facts. It wasn't as if he was lying or anything, right?.

\----------------------------------

"Professor?"

 

Severus didn't know what to make out of the new name the teen had decided for him, but it was better than....., anything really. he looked over to the boy.

 

"Were you really best friends with my parents?" Harry asked, looking anywhere but at Severus.

"yes" Severus replied flatly, handing the boy his daily dose of potions. Well, he was 'best friends', as the boy put it, with Lily and he knew James Potter well enough, so technically he wasn't lying.

 

"Can you tell me more about them?"

Severus opened his mouth to say no, but damn those eyes. Those big, green eyes. He knew he should've let Albus take the boy off his hair when he had the chance. He nodded silently and the boy's face lit up like Christmas lights.

\----------------------------

A loud scream woke Severus up. he was quickly off the bed, wand in his hand, wartime reflexes kicking in. Looking around he realised that the noise was coming from Harry's room. Throwing his wand on the bed he ran to Harry. The child was thrashing in his bed.

 

"Harry, Harry " Severus tried to wake him up.

Harry's eyes snapped open when Severus shook him. The fear in his eyes was evident as he scanned his surroundings.

"I'm sorry I woke you up" he pleaded

"It's alright Harry, I was already awake" he lied.

 

He cast a tempus charm.

"It's nearly six anyway, would you like to have some breakfast?" he tried to divert the boy's attention somewhere else.

"Yes" Harry mumbled.

 

By the time they reached the kitchen, breakfast was already already set at the table.

"Do you want to talk?" Severus asked as he helped Harry with some scrambled eggs (seriously that boy needed to eat more, he picked at food like a bird, at this rate the boy was going to remain scrawny forever )

 

Harry shook his head.

"It might help, but I'm not going to force you Harry, I just want you to know that I'm here if you want to"

 

Harry nodded, he knew that. The professor was always there, he quietly listened to Harry, petted his hair, hugged him afterwards. And no matter how much he hated it, he felt better after talking with the man.

 

"He wouldn't let me sleep"  Harry mumbled

Severus nodded encouraging him to go on.

"He-he....I..." Harry was near a nervous breakdown.

Severus moved out of his chair and sitting beside Harry he cradled the child.

He found the child calming as he petted his hair.

"I had a nightmare and woke them up" Harry continued.

"My uncle punished me and wouldn't let me sleep for the next three days" Harry whispered " said I had to learn importance of sleep"

"I'll never allow that sort of thing to happen again Harry. Never"

Harry nodded and buried himself in the professor's chest; he believed him.

\-----------------------------------------

For the rest of the morning, the boy followed Severus like a lost puppy. Which was fine, as he didn't have anything important to do, but it was nearly noon and he had to tend to some potions he had kept in his lab. The ingredients were rather expensive and he'd rather not have to buy them again.

 

As soon as he got up to leave, the younger teen folded the daily prophet he'd been previously so engrossed in, and followed him.

"You can take the paper if you want"

The boy literally flew over to table and back, as if he was afraid Severus would leave him.

 

Severus walked to wall near his bedroom, which lead to his personal lab. Whispering the password quietly, he entered the small room followed by Harry.

"Stay quiet and do not touch anything" Severus received a quiet nod and looked into cauldron, adjusting the flames accordingly.

 

He stirred the pale lilac solution 53 times clockwise and then 37 times counterclockwise. From the corner of his eye he noticed the boy failing miserably at pretending to read the paper.

 

Harry nodded eagerly when the man asked him if he'd like to help. The man showed him how to cut the ingredients, it was just like cutting vegetables and years with the Dursleys meant Harry had a lot of practice with that.

 

Severus lowered the flames and put the potion under a stasis charm. He looked over and it seemed that Harry was enjoying himself while cutting the ingredients. Maybe he hadn't made the totally wrong decision, it seemed like he could live with this brat after all.

\----------------------------

"Would master Severus like more dessert?"

Severus glared at her, as if it was an option. The first time Mipsy served him desert he suspected that she finally had gone senile. But then he caught the boy looking at him expectantly with those big green eyes and ate the way too colourful carrot cake. Now that mistake was going to haunt him his entire life.

 

The Devilish Duo, as he was thinking of naming them, was hell bent on making sure that he'd be sporting a pot belly like Slughorn. Severus shuddered at the mental image. He was being forced to like all those disgustingly delicious greasy carbs, every time he said no Harry would look like someone kicked his crup. It was a bloody nightmare.

 

But the boy seemed comfortable around him now. Well, he was at least not ‘uncomfortable’ and that ought to count for something. Severus noticed Harry picking out strawberries from dessert.

 

"Do you like strawberries?"

The boy nodded.

"So what's your favorite fruit?" it wasn't much of a conversation but it was still better than awkward silence.

"Aunt Petunia never let me have any fruit" the boy mumbled, embarrassed.

 

"That can be easily remedied. Mipsy" he called out. "Please get Harry a bowl of strawberries" he said when the elf appeared, "and make sure to include some fruits in every meal". The elf nodded and was back a few seconds later with strawberries.

 

"Thanks" Harry smiled shyly "Do you want some?" he offered some to the elf. Mipsy looked at Severus at for help. He just raised his eyebrows. Severus would've cackled like a madman if not for the fact it'd scare the living daylights out of Harry. The she elf shot him a look of pure venom as she took a few strawberries. Clearly someone did not like the taste of their own medicine.

 

"Was I not supposed to do that?" the teen asked awkwardly

It had taken a lot of explanations (and working around the facts) for Harry to adjust to the concept of house elves. Besides, he did pay Mipsy regular wages - yes, he paid her 2 galleons per week, Merlin knows that the elf just kept it aside, giving him a look that clearly said she was just catering to his childish whims - and gave her a day off every week (which she spent tidying around the quarters, she snapped at him that she was doing it for herself and not for him). It helped that Mipsy fiercely told Harry that master Severus was a good master.

"No, but it's fine" Severus waved it off "she'll get over it"

\---------------------------------

Severus found harry poring over some text and scribbling furiously in his notebook, and he resisted the urge to sigh. A few days before, Severus had decided to start the boy on some magical education. He hadn't talked to Albus about it, but he was sure it'd be help the boy, seeing as it was Albus' decision to directly enrol the boy in fifth year. It wasn't much, just some magical theory since he couldn't practice spells until he got his wand anyways and some brewing techniques, and Severus had to admit, the boy was a quick learner. Although now that he thought about it, giving Harry permission to read his way through his personal library might not have been a very good idea.

 

"No books on dinner table Harry"

 

"Sorry professor" Harry smiled sheepishly

 

Severus huffed. It was a common occurrence to find the boy engrossed in a book. Severus was sure Harry got those bookworm genes from Lily. Though the child's love for cooking was most probably his grandmother's genes.

 

Grace Evans was the kindest woman he had ever met. His own mother had died when he was seven, but not before informing his father that he was a wizard and she a witch; since then his father was barely on speaking terms with him. Grace had been there when he needed a parental figure in his life.

 

Severus remembered her attempts at teaching both Lily and him some cooking. Needless to say, the results were disastrous. He had managed fairly well, while Lily, Lily was terrible at cooking, and her attempts at it were usually edible at best (Severus slipped both of them some food poisoning potions first, though he dared not tell her that).

 

"Professor?"

The words shook the dark haired man out of his daze.

"Yes" merlin, he had created a monster.

Severus could understand Harry's curiosity but his patience was wearing thin. He nearly snapped when he was asked the 153rd question (yes, Severus actually counted) of the day (he did not know how the levitation charm worked in regards to some muggle science law of gravity for Merlin’s sake, or why division by zero was not possible), though he managed to mask it (barely), Severus was quickly running out of ways of saying 'I don't know'. Maybe he could unleash Harry on Minerva. It was, after all, her idea.

 

"Why is my name in this book?"

Severus gave a sigh. At last one question he could answer. No, wait...

\----------------------------

A week before September 1st, Severus decided that they needed to get clothes and school supplies for Harry. The boy in question was a little skeptical at first, but after thoroughly assuring that his parents had left him a very generous sum of money Severus floo'ed them to Hogsmeade and the apparated them to muggle London.

 

Harry did look a little green from simultaneous flooing and apparition, but that didn't keep him from pestering Severus about floo's and apparition. Thankfully Severus saw the shop he'd been searching for and quietened Harry with a promise to give him a book about wizarding transportation later that evening.

 

It was a small shop where Severus bought his muggle clothes, he figured they'd have something appropriate for Harry. There one could only live so long on transfigured clothes and also he didn't know where to shop for fifteen year old boys.

 

"Pick whatever you like" Severus told him once they were inside the store. Harry just stared at him in response. Off Course, the boy was not used to making his own choices, he certainly couldn't imagine Petunia or her walrus of a husband allowing the boy to think for himself.

"Would you like some help?" Harry nodded in relief at the offer.

 

"Pick one" Severus said, selecting two shirts that seemed like something Harry would wear. This way he'd be helping the boy make his own choices instead of making them for him. After helping Harry get some trousers and much to Harry's embarrassment some underwear,  Severus took him to a nearby park to have some lunch.

 

Harry munched the corn sandwich Mipsy made him. He was felt awful for letting the professor pay for all his stuff and despite what the man said Harry was not that stupid, they hadn't even been to a bank to withdraw the money. He didn't want to be the one to look gift horse in the mouth and he seriously doubted his uncle would pay for him to learn magic, but he had to pay the money back somehow and the professor didn't let him do that by helping around and cooking (which was only thing he knew and was good at, incidentally). Alex said that he worked at the library to help with his college fees, maybe he could get a summer job too or something like that.

 

"You're having silly thoughts" Severus stated flatly.

Harry wondered if it was that mind thing again, legi- something.

"I just happen to have been around children long enough to know when they are thinking something particularly silly" Severus calmly finished off his sandwich.

"Come on, you can eat while we walk" he handed Harry an apple, they had a lot many things to do.

\--------------------------------

Harry had never seen such a strange place, granted that Harry had not seen many places but this one surely had to be the strangest. Everything was old and kinda musty.

 

The professor told him that the shop was invisible to muggles (the non magic people), which explained why they walked past the shop without giving it even a passing glance. The shop was full of wizards and witches hustling and bustling.

 

Once inside Severus noticed Harry clutching his robes tighter, and quickly navigated his way through the crowd to entrance of Diagon alley. Severus' lips curled up a little when Harry's eyes widened comically as the archway slowly dissolved to reveal Diagon alley.

 

And he thought the Leaky Cauldron was strange, Harry mused as they moved through the alley. There were people selling slimy newts eyes (5 knuts a scoop) and some rather weird things (salamander tongues and beetle's legs to name a few).

 

They took a quick detour to Gringotts (wizarding bank run by goblins, the professor explained) to withdraw money from his parent's vaults. Seeing the long line near the entrance, Severus decided to withdraw some from the nearby quick withdraw machines. One would think after having the whole wizarding world as their clientele, the goblins would install more that 2 carts to take people down to the vaults. He pushed the small golden key Albus gave him the previous week into the slot and turned it. The tall hunk of a machine hummed to life and a handful of galleons came pouring out of the slot, apparently one could only withdraw only 100 galleons on monthly basis from an allowance vault. Thankfully life as a spy meant Severus always prepared for every possible situation, he smiled as he patted on the moleskin pouch he always kept on his person (an emergency portkey, polyjuice, some healing potions, some food and enough galleons to last him a couple of months in case of emergency, one can never be too careful).

\-------------------------

 

The apothecary was a bit creepy, at least Harry thought so. It was dark, gloomy and had shelves full of bottled ingredients. So he stuck by the professor and watched curiously as the professor bought the basic potions kit and a set of cauldrons for him.

 

After that they went to a book shop called Flourish and Blotts, Harry was awestruck there were so many kinds of books, there was a book about monsters on the showcase that tried to bite anyone who went near it. Severus couldn't help a small smile, Harry looked like a child in a candy shop.

 

The boy looked like he didn't want to leave Severus, but it seemed that his bookworm genes won out, so Harry ran towards the shelves grinning like a maniac.

Now that he thought about it, it may not have been a very good idea to let a proven and hereditary bookworm like Harry free rein to run amok in a bookstore, Severus chuckled as he thought about what would happen when Harry discovered Hogwarts library. Pince was going to have hard time keeping this one out of her library, he thought as he made his way to the shelves that kept school books.

 

Nearly 20 minutes later Severus found Harry with a pile of books in his hands, giving them longing glances before putting them back to their places.

 

"What are you doing?" Severus asked even though he knew the answer.

" I’m, um, nothing?" Harry stuttered, his face red as a tomato.

“Funny, I don't see you doing 'nothing' "

Severus didn't think it was possible, but Harry's face became redder and he tried to hide a smirk.

"Let me see" Severus inspected the pile with a critical eye while Harry stood there fidgeting. He put some books back and added a few to the pile.

"Let me carry them"  he took the books from Harry, put them in the cauldron with the school books and started walking to the counter.

 

"We should go to madam Malkin’s next, what do you think Harry?" Harry?"

Severus turned back to find Harry still rooted to the spot staring incredulously at him.

" what is it, Harry?" Severus walked back to Harry.

"But I… I... Money?" Harry seemed to have lost the ability to form sentences.

"There we go with the silly thoughts again" Severus said; the boy just stared at the floor and stood there fidgeting. "Look here, Harry. I happen to have a lot of money and don't mind spending a bit on you, but if it bothers you that much, you can consider this as a birthday present. And now, young lad, I don't want to hear a single worrying word about money from you, am I clear?"

 

Harry nodded hesitantly and returned a bright smile, determined to pay the professor back as soon as he could. If one of his students saw him like this, with a grinning child hanging off his arm, his reputation as dungeon bat would be permanently ruined, Severus thought, but he found that at the moment he could care less.


	3. The Granger Infestation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again!!! Before you get into this ginormous update I think I should clear a few things up. Harry is being enrolled at the age of 15 (Unlike everyone else). Everyone was mislead that Harry had a private instructor. As to why nobody finds out the truth for these many years, it's for me to know and you to find out ;)  
> One last thing before you go, there's a (not so) future pairing hint in this chapter, cookie for anyone who finds it.  
> Please review and Thank you for reading!!!  
> P.S-This chapter has been beta'ed by lovely Dinky_dog

Draco was contemplating what to do next while standing in line at the counter in Flourish and Blotts when someone walked into him. The patent Malfoy sneer was nearly set on his face when he turned around and saw a boy with messiest black hair and eyes the most hypnotic shade of green he had ever seen.

"Sorry" the boy scrambled around to gather the fallen books. boy, those were a lot of books. Generally Draco would sneer at such unceremonious display, though he held it back as it did give him a nice view of the cute brunette bending over. With a quick flick of his wand all the books shrunk and arranged themselves back into the boy's cauldron.

"Thanks" the boy flushed.

Draco gave him a flirtatious smile that was guaranteed to charm the pants off anyone. If everything went right he'd snogging the brunette silly in about fifteen minutes. ten if they decided to make use of deserted corner around dark arts section.

"Draco Malfoy" he offered his hand.

"No" Severus said flatly stepping between Draco and the boy, recognizing the devilish trademark 'I'm-going-have-you-right-now' glint in his godson's eyes. After all he'd seen it enough times with Lucius. He grimaced even at the thought of sex and Harry together in a sentence.

"Well hello to you too, Sev"

The man gave him a look that clearly said that this one was off limits. Fine, Draco could live with that. Then he saw that perfectly kissable frown on the boy's lips. For now, he corrected himself.

\---------------------------

Harry listened, fascinated, as the blonde talked about flying brooms and "kwidich". He really didn't understand the game yet but it seemed interesting. They were at some ice cream shop as Draco had declared that they were having some, and Harry being Harry didn't see any point in arguing with his first friend, well apart from Alex, and anyways ice creams were supposed to be nice weren't they? There was a warm, fuzzy feeling in his chest when Draco called him his 'friend' in the Ice Cream shop.

Draco noticed the look of utter delight on the brunette's face as he tasted his mango vanilla flavored ice cream. He couldn't help but stare at those perfect pink lips and the way that tongue snaked between those lips, giving kitten licks to ice cream cone. At that particular moment Draco was very thankful for robes and how well they hid certain 'things' though he might have to be careful around Sev; he had made it clear that he would quite literally chop his bollocks off and feed them to him if he were to bend Harry over and- damn his overactive imagination. Drops of ice cream melting onto his hands shook him out of his daze.

"So Harry, did you buy your wand yet?" Draco steered the conversation in futile attempt to distract himself from those cherry lips and the way Harry was licking his ice cream.

 

\-----

 

Meanwhile, somewhere else...

 

"Franzbrötchen for me and my husband" Narcissa instructed the waiter "and Severus here will have a Pâté chaud"

"Every part of that sentence horrifies me" Severus drawled, he didn't waste any breath arguing with Narcissa, as he knew it would be a futile attempt; there was simply no saying no to that woman.

 

"So?" the blonde matriarch prompted, once their order arrived and the waiter had left the table.

"So what?" Severus dully replied

"You know Severus, they do celebrate birthdays here! In fact, it's a custom that all the customers and the staff gather to sing happy birthday" Narcissa said innocently

"And of course there's the birthday cake, where's the fun without that" Lucius, that traitor joined the conversation.

"You wouldn't dare" Severus hissed

Both the Malfoys had Cheshire Cat grins plastered to their face in response, Severus wouldn't put it past them to do it.  He sighed in defeat and their smiles just got wider.

 

Severus explained the circumstances under which he found Harry to his long time friends. The reactions on the table varied, from stunned silence to barely concealed anger. The Malfoys may not look like it but they loved children (as attested by the fact that they had nearly spoiled Draco rotten), naturally both were incensed at the very fact that someone could do this to a child, let alone someone who was supposed to be 'the Chosen One'.

 

Lucius remembered the boy hiding behind Severus, he was genuinely surprised that Potter would trust someone, especially an adult after enduring cruelty of those muggles. He sneered at the word. Trust the old coot to something like this.

 

"It seems that mr. Potter has taken to you quite well, Severus" 

 

Severus nodded, absentmindedly sipping his drink. Harry really had come long ways he realized, the boy did have nightmares on a regular basis but that was to be expected. It would certainly go away as Harry moved on with his life, made some friends of his age.

 

"Could you please have a talk with Draco about Harry?" Severus suddenly asked. "I would like Draco and Harry to be friends, but Draco can be an insensitive prat, and by insensitive prat I mean his persistent habit of trying to get pants off-"

 

"I know" Narcissa interrupted, "I will talk to him, he does take a lot after his father" she smirked  

 

"What about Mr. Potter's magical education?" Lucius purposefully ignored her.

"He's a quick learner, takes after his mother in that aspect" Severus took another bite of his way too dry and way too chocolatey dessert.

"The headmaster intends him to give all the previous exams along with his year end exams" he finished off his dessert with a grimace.

 

"The brat makes it much better" he muttered, signaling the waiter that he was done.

"I believe it now, way to man's heart is through his stomach" Narcissa said innocently and Lucius, that traitor agreed with her, smiling quietly.

Severus promptly ignored them, he refused to succumb to whatever nonsensical thoughts that ran amok in their heads.

\--------------------------------------

"Just address the letter to me, the owl will know how to find me" Draco explained to Harry as they waited for his godfather and his parents, who were running late by the way, not that he was complaining. The green eyed boy nodded and tugged on his messy hair, it seemed a habit. Draco wondered if those messy locks were as thick as they looked. Thankfully, Draco saw Sev and his parents moving through the crowd. He didn't think he could take much more of it, he had been hard for an hour already, with Harry bending over and licking...things. The urge to push the brunette - preferably against a wall - and nibble on those lips was nearly irresistible. He wondered if they'd taste like the mango vanilla ice cream the boy just had. He gave himself a swift mental kick at the thought. The blonde couldn't help but feel a little disappointment when Harry rushed and clung to Sev as soon as they arrived.

 

Sensing the boy's nervousness around other adults the Malfoys quickly said their goodbyes and were quickly on their way.

 

"What's kwidich?" Harry asked as they navigated their way through the crowd.

"Quidditch... It's a wizarding sport" Severus explained as they turned around the corner towards Ollivanders.

 

Tinkling of the bells announced their presence in the shop. The whole space was full of neatly arranged wooden boxes. Harry felt like he was entering a warehouse. There was some empty space in the corner and a small counter sat in middle of it

 

"Mr. Snape, maple and dragon heartstring 11 inches quite rigid, wasn't it? Still working for you?"

an old man suddenly appeared in front of Severus, startling Harry.

"If you mean to say that I'm still stubborn and other such inconsequential things, then yes" Severus answered in a dull tone

"To what do I owe the pleasure then?"

Severus stepped aside to reveal the scrawny boy.

"Ah, mr. Potter, what a surprise."

Harry looked at the frail looking old man with intelligent grey eyes

 

"Hello" he tried awkwardly

"You have your mother’s eyes mr. Potter. It seems only yesterday she was in here herself, buying her first wand. Ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow. Nice wand for charm work.”

 

Mr. Ollivander moved closer to Harry. Harry wished he would blink. Those silvery eyes were a bit creepy

 

"Your father, on the other hand, favored a mahogany wand. Eleven inches. Pliable. A little more power and excellent for transfiguration. Well, I say your father favored it — it’s really the wand that chooses the wizard, of course ". Behind him, Severus sneered

 

Mr. Ollivander had come so close that Harry and him were almost nose to nose. Harry could see himself reflected in those misty eyes. The man suddenly walked back to his counter. Harry couldn't help but think that the man was a bit loony.

 

"Mr. Potter, if you would" the man sounded awfully chipper, he waved his wand and a tape with odd marking's on it flew into his hand.

Harry watched as the tape measured him from shoulder to finger, then wrist to elbow, shoulder to floor, knee to armpit and round his head while mr. Ollivander bustled around the shop picking up seemingly random boxes.

He opened one and handed a long wooden wand to Harry, only to snatch it back moments later.

"No no no, maybe something more flexible" he muttered. "Here, ashwinder ash and vine wood" he said, handing the boy another fancy looking piece of wood. "Just give it a wave mr. Potter, just give it a wave" the old man prompted

Harry felt stupid waving around a stick of wood but he did it anyway, and purple colored sparks burst out of it, knocking everything off the shelves.

 

" _Ventilabio_ _, disponat dirigo_ " Ollivander made a sweeping motion with his wand. The sparks went out, and the fallen boxes went back to their shelves.

 

Harry looked sheepishly at Severus, who was a bit disheveled after his attempt to avoid the incoming onslaught of boxes. He turned around to find Ollivander peering intently at him.

 

"Hmm, that's quite a variety, perhaps something more polar" the man muttered looking somewhere in space beside Harry. "Yes, yes that one should do it" mr. Ollivander suddenly ran to the back of the store

 

Harry could practically imagine him rummaging through piles of boxes, Ollivander was back a few minutes later with a dusty old box, and a bright smile.

"Runespoor venom and unicorn horn. Poison and healing, a rather odd combination but I think it'll suit you nicely" mr. Ollivander said as he handed him a pale ivory wand. It spewed a greenish fire that seemed to slide off everything till it caught Harry's robe, Harry dropped it when it suddenly grew very hot in his hands. The fire vanished with perfunctory wave of mr. Ollivander's wand who was now rummaging through a pile off wooden boxes.

 

"No, no, no try this hawthorn and acromantula venom 11 inches springy" , immediately even that was snatched from his hands

 

"how about this one, apple and ashwinder ash 10 inches"

 

When Harry waved the wand it burst into flames in his hand and he dropped it. Mr. Ollivander waved his wand and shot a jet of water at it.

 

Soon, there was a small mountain of boxes of wands which Harry had tried; he was feeling like an idiot and was on the verge of tears.

"Tricky customer eh, mr. Potter?" Ollivander said in a suspiciously happy tone. Suddenly, as if he had found solution to the problem, he ran and came back with a box. "Why not? Why not try this, mr. Potter, an unusual combination of holly and phoenix feather, 11 inches?"

Harry  waved the wand; it rattled violently in his hand, while golden red sparks burst out of it at alarming rate, Harry winced when it just stopped with loud crack, a fiery red feather visible through cracked wood.

"Well, this could have been your wand, mr. Potter but it seems that it was not strong enough to channel your magic" mr. Ollivander frowned. "I suppose your wand will have to be custom made, follow me mr. Potter " mr. Ollivander sounded a bit too excited.

Harry looked questioningly at Severus who motioned Harry to go on.

\-------------------------

Harry followed the man to a door which lead to the back of the shop.

Ollivander traced complicated patterns in air with his wand and then poked the door with it. The door wiggled and opened with a click, Harry entered a small room. It was bare except a squishy chair and a small circular table in the center. On the table lay what looked like some sort of instruments. Harry followed the man who stood in front a particular part of the wall and was prodding it with his wand at various places. The bricks quivered and suddenly the wall opened to reveal entrance to a really, really large.... Storage room??? On both sides of the walls shelves were filled with various jars filled with odd things.

"Let's select the base for the wand first, shall we?"

Ollivander led a baffled Harry to a cabinet near end of the room . He opened it to reveal several types of what was supposed to be wooden wands, then picked some of them and laid them on a nearby table.

 

"Pick one mr. Potter"

"Huh?"

"Close your eyes and pick something you like" Ollivander smiled.

Harry closed his eyes and moved his hand, touching each wood briefly. His fingers then touched something it wasn't wood as it was cool to touch or maybe it was, Harry wasn't sure.  He picked it up, it felt warm and inexplicably correct in his hand.

"Is it the one? "

"Yes" Harry replied confidently.

 

Harry handed the stick to Ollivander, whose eyes were twinkling (it was a bit creepy to be honest) as he led Harry back into the large room. There he inspected Harry as if the boy was some specimen, a problem to be solved. He ran around the room picking some jars and vials randomly (at least it looked random to Harry) from the shelves.

 

After collecting quite a few jars and vials, he took Harry back to the room with the squishy chair, everything floating behind him. He laid everything on the table again and turned towards Harry.

 

"Now mr. Potter, select the vials that feel right, don't hesitate, take your time and make sure you pick the right ones"

 

Harry nodded and did as he instructed and ended up choosing three vials, "are these the ones?" Ollivander asked, peering

"All three of them feel... you know" Harry replied nervously. The man nodded understandingly.

He handed all the three vials to mr. Ollivander, who peered curiously at them.

 

"Interesting choice, I must say mr. Potter "

 

Mr. Ollivander whipped out his wand, conjuring a silver basin out of thin air. Harry curiously studied the inscriptions on its edges. It looked like something from one of Dudley's horror movies, all mystical and stuff like that.

 

"Why do you say so, mr. Ollivander?" Harry asked, curious at Ollivander's comment.

 

"All in good time mr. Potter , all in good time... Every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful magical substance" the man explained, tracing certain symbols on the basin. "Now, most wands have one single core, two for very powerful wizards, or three in very rare cases, but your wand mr. Potter has four cores, if you consider the wand wood you've chosen"  he continued, being nearly finished with the symbols; Harry thought he could see power swirling through them, shining in electric blue.

 

Harry had quite a few questions he wanted to ask, but chose to listen instead.

 

"No two wands are the same, just as no two magical creatures are quite the same. And of course, you will never get such good results with another wizard’s wand"

 

Mr. Ollivander tapped the silver basin once he was done and a silvery light flashed over it, momentarily blinding Harry.

 

"This, mr. Potter" Ollivander carefully lowered the beautifully carved ivory stick into the basin and Harry noticed a faint greenish tinge, "is essence of basilisk. A basilisk fang soaked in its venom, passed down for generations in my family. Many of my ancestors tried unsuccessfully to turn it into a wand, quite stubborn this one"

"What is a basilisk?" Harry was finally overcome by curiousity.

"A basilisk is the king of snakes, a serpent born when a chicken egg is hatched by a toad... basilisks are very rare, and have the deadliest venom in the world." mr. Ollivander said distractedly; he looked as if unable to decide on how to proceed, then he chanted in a language Harry didn't understand and shimmering shield surrounded the basin.

 

"Just a precaution" Harry heard him murmur."The cores you have chosen, or should I say the cores that chose you, are powerful mr. Potter, very powerful and let's just say that if they react badly with each other we'd standing in crater size of London" he explained to a befuddled Harry.

 

"I think 3 drops of your blood should suffice" he said producing a small silver dagger from his robes. It had some inscriptions on it's base.

"Do all wands require blood?" Harry asked curiously, holding out his hand.

"No mr. Potter, yours as I'm sure you would have noticed is a rather special case. A creature's blood is it's very essence, so if these elements chose you, then your blood should help in stabilizing them... Nothing to be afraid of mr. Potter, nothing at all" he gently pricked Harry's thumb.

 

Harry had a strong urge roll his eyes he wasn't afraid seeing his blood. He had seen enough of his blood when his relatives punished him to be afraid or vary of it. Harry watched as drops of his blood fell on the fang. It absorbed his blood like the sponge he used in aunt Petunia's kitchen and turned a woody brown color.

With a few whispered words from Ollivander the wound on Harry's hand healed itself. The older man carefully picked the fang up and studied it.

 

"Ah. I think this should suffice"

 

He placed it back into the basin. Picking an object similar to scalpel out of the instrument box on table, the man cut the holly wand precisely, extracting an unscathed fiery red feather.

 

"Hand me the red vial, would you mr. Potter "

Harry quickly scurried around and did as he was told.

 

Ollivander looked back and forth between the feather and the vial which, looked like it had blood red fire in it. Seemingly satisfied, he uncorked the vial and dipped the feather in it. Despite being bigger, the feather fit in and the bespectacled boy watched in awe as the feather slowly started dissolving into the liquid.

 

 "This is blood of a phoenix, mr. Potter, freely given. It's similar to a phoenix's feather but is considerably more powerful" Ollivander whispered, eyes never straying from the vial. "Had quite a trouble acquiring it. It's a strange coincidence, mr. Potter, that I would happen to have the blood of the same phoenix who gave me the feather for your holly wand all those years ago"

 

There was pin drop silence as both pair of eyes stared intently as the feather finally dissolved in the blood. The man gave it one final look before he emptied the vial in the basin. A soft trilling sound filled the air followed by hissing sounds as the flames engulfed the ivory, angrily lapping at it.

 

"I suppose it would take some time" the man lead Harry to the squishy chair and conjuring another one he settled down in it. Harry accepted a biscuit when the man offered, while the hissing sounds continued in the background.

 

"Did you know, mr. Potter, that phoenixes and basilisks are considered to be eternal enemies? Would you like some warm milk?" the man asked when a full tea service appeared on a nearby table. Harry nodded, wondering how the man knew that he preferred milk over tea. The older man added two sugars and a tad of honey to Harry's milk, just the way Mipsy did it. Handing him the cup, Ollivander started pouring some tea for himself, "as I was saying, mr. Potter  both creatures represent two exactly opposite aspects of life - death and rebirth. Interesting enough, phoenix tears are the only cure for basilisk venom" the man chattered on.

 

Slowly the hissing quietened down and Harry noticed that the basilisk fang had soaked up the flames entirely, turning a rich brown color with the previous ivory finish.

 

Ollivander inspected it for a few moments before giving a satisfied nod. They waited for a bit more before moving to the next ingredient "to allow the magic to settle"

 

Harry was starting to get bored, when Ollivander  picked up the next element, a vial with a silvery liquid in it. 

 

"Unicorn blood mr. Potter. I found a unicorn hurt by some predator in the forest once. Quite willful, that one, nearly gored me with what was left of his horn, before it allowed me to help."

 

Ollivander's uncorked the vial and set it aside. " _Trine_ " Harry heard him murmur, then man’s eyes drifted off for a moment, giving him a dazed sort of look, though in Harry’s opinion it wasn’t far from his regular impression. The man then picked the remaining vial, and with the help of a pair of pincers, plucked a rough uncut black stone out of it.

 

"This, mr. Potter  is a crystallized piece of a Dementor's heart"

 

Harry could feel a cold withering aura around the stone. He gasped when he remembered a woman's cry and a flash of green. Ollivander gave him a knowing glance, and walked to the farthest corner of the room.

 

Harry was still dazed from the effect of the dementor's heart when Ollivander was back with a small stone bowl. He barely noticed when the man started humming strangely and dropped contents of both vials into the bowl.

 

A loud bang shook Harry out of his daze. he looked around bewildered, only to find the black stone floating in air, Ollivander's wand levitating it.

 

"What happened?" Harry found that his throat was suddenly parched.

"Oh nothing to worry about, mr. Potter, nothing at all" the man assured him, though Harry didn't find it much reassuring. "I thought as much"  Ollivander muttered after a minute of  thought.

" _cessabis_ "

 

Harry found himself enraptured in the scene in front of him. Ollivander started humming in low tones and the black stone slowly fell into the bowl, the silvery liquid inside rose in spirals to meet halfway. The liquid hissed and frothed where ever it met the stone. slowly and steadily the stone was getting smaller and smaller, it was dissolving Harry realized. 

 

It got smaller and smaller, until there was nothing left, the humming gradually stopped and the liquid receded into the bowl. Harry peered over and noticed that he could still see black swirls in the silvery liquid.

 

"Just a few minutes more, mr. Potter  and we should be done"

 

Harry just nodded as the man started humming again, but this time it was more like chanting and Harry could actually make out the words if he listened hard enough.

 

" _Movere_ _spiraliter paria admoveret coniungeretque spiraliter transigendum_ " Ollivander chanted, tracing spirals with his wand and the liquid rose again, only this time he directed it to the silver basin.

 

" _Miserere_ _admoveret coniungeretque_ "

 

Harry could feel the surroundings shifting, charged with incredible force, 'magic' he realized as there was a blinding flash of light and Harry had to look away. When Harry was able to look again, there were black and fiery red tendrils swirling around the wand in the basin, crackling occasionally.

 

Harry shifted uncomfortably, it was feeling weird as if it was too hot and dreadfully cold simultaneously. Ollivander silently inspected the contents of the basin and walked to farther part of wall and poked it with his wand. He returned with a brilliant red stone, and handed it to Harry. It was hot, but nothing Harry couldn't handle. There was raging fire inside, Harry could feel it trying to break through. He hissed when he cut his hand on one of the ragged end of stone and it started sucking the blood from the cut.

 

"That will do" Ollivander said as if the man was waiting for the exact thing to happen, adding the stone to the contents in the basin.

 

The stone disappeared in a storm of magic, and slowly the tendrils were settled right back into the wand. Harry noticed it was a shade darker.

 

"That was a blood stone mr. Potter , dragon fire compressed into solid form" mr. Ollivander frowned "neutral magic to stabilize two extremes"

 

He plucked the wand out basin and carefully as if it was a bomb about to go off, he passed into Harry's eager hands.

 

Warmth spread through Harry's hand as he waved the wand. a jet of multicolored sparks burst from it, happily dancing around the younger boy. Harry laughed a giddy feeling spreading in his chest. Unbeknownst to Harry, Ollivander was staring at him with something akin to pity.

\-------------------------------------------

Severus liked to think that he was a patient man, but there was only so many times one could count number of boxes in shelves at Ollivanders. About time, he huffed when he saw Harry followed by the old wandmaker

 

"So?" Severus asked curiously, as it was uncommon for wands to be custom made.

 

"Essence of basilisk as base, phoenix fire, unicorn blood, a piece of dementor heart for core, and a blood stone to stabilize the magic" Ollivander replied as if it was nothing out of the usual.  "11 1/2 inches, rigid and virtually unbreakable" the wandmaker continued, as he packed a wand in a box.

 

"You jest" Severus drawled, "our corpses should be lying in a crater, that is if 'someone' " he made air quotes "was foolish enough to mix basilisk venom and phoenix fire, and I'd like to think that I'm alive, thank you very much"

 

"I do not jest mr. Snape" Ollivander's said simply. "Now, that will be 7 galleons" he thrust the box in Harry's hand.

"What?" Severus asked dumbfounded, noticing the custom wand still in the boy's hand.

"That will be 7 galleons" Ollivander repeated, irritated.

 

Severus used to think that Ollivander was a bit eccentric, now he was sure.

"What's in the box?" .

"Well, I just sold holly and phoenix feather wand to mr. Potter  didn't I?" mr. Ollivander took the money that Severus put on the table.

"And mr. Snape" he called, as he saw them out.

Severus turned back.

"Magical menagerie might be a good place to get a familiar. Now shoo, I have work to do" Ollivander shooed them away.

 

Severus nodded at the cryptic message, Ollivander might be eccentric but one never ignored what he said without consequences, so he decided to visit the menagerie to get a pet for Harry.

\--------------------------------

Sitting on the edge of Knockturn Alley,  Magical Menagerie was well known for having various exotic pets. It was full of pets of various shapes, sizes and colors. Harry craned his neck to get a look at all the pets.

 

There were cats, owls, snakes, rats and many other creatures he couldn't have imagined existed. Harry moved near a cage with beautiful white owl in it, to take a good look at it, oblivious that he was dragging an uncomfortable looking Severus with him.

 

He raised his hand to the cage and the owl in it snapped at him, moving to the other side. Harry scuttled back and was looking rather dejected when a small weight settled on his shoulder. He looked to find a miniature replica of dragon he saw in the books, moving along his arm. It's skin was color of fresh snow, with a pale bluish tinge to it. Harry raised his palm as the tiny creature settled in it and studied the beautiful markings that ran along the creature's wings, back and tail.

 

"Hello" he raised his finger in front of it. The sharp green eyes of the creature studied him for a moment and the it suddenly nipped the finger in front of him, drawing some blood."Oww!" Harry sucked on his finger "it bit me"

 

"Some of them do, to start a familiar bond you know" an older woman dressed in purple came into view and the creature flew from his palm onto his shoulder.

 

"You are taking me home, human" a voice hissed.

 

Harry looked around and found it's source on preening on his shoulder.

 

"Did it just talk?"  Harry said, pointing at the creature.

"He, it's a he" 'he' glared at him.

" 'He' just talked" Harry corrected himself finally looking up at Severus who was regarding the creature curiously.

 

"Congratulations, you've just found a familiar, blah blah blah. Now that will be 40 galleons please" the woman interrupted, looking bored.

"What exactly is it?" Severus asked handing her money.

 

The creature hissed, spewing a small jet of ice blue flames in Severus' direction, startling him.

" 'He' doesn't like being called 'it' " Harry explained sheepishly.

"What exactly is 'he' ?" Severus narrowed his eyes at 'he'.

"Looks like a small dragon to me" the woman waved it off, pocketing the money.

 

Severus decided that was enough crazy for a day and let it go.

\-------------------------

Harry was waiting outside a shop petting his familiar, while Severus was doing some business inside. He was surprised when the professor handed him a package.

"Happy birthday, Harry"

"You shouldn't have, I mean really-"

 

He was cut off when Severus raised an eyebrow. Severus smiled when Harry thanked him profusely, blushing to the tip of his ears. he couldn't imagine that whale of a muggle and his horse of a wife giving Harry a decent present.

 

"Go on. open it" Severus prompted and Harry quickly opened the package. "It's a wand holster, made from moleskin so only you would be able to use it, charmed to never to fall" Harry was fascinated, it was the best (and not to mention the first) gift he ever got.  

 

"It's perfect. thank you " he suddenly hugged Severus, ignoring the dragon who squawked and perched on top of his head.

\-------------------------

"Professor?" Harry asked as they were walking towards the apparition point.

"Yes?" Severus looked at Harry, who had the creature settled on top of his head, looking down at everything, quite unsuccessfully as Harry was short even by eleven year old standards.

 

"What happened at the wand shop?"

"When a wand is sold to a wizard, the transaction is to be recorded at the ministry of magic" Severus explained.

"There is ministry of magic?" Harry asked

"Of course there is. You do know that the wand made for you is a rather powerful one" Harry nodded, he gathered that much. "Now, as I was saying the transaction is to be recorded at the ministry. But if it became public knowledge that you possess such a powerful wand, you would be attracting unwanted attention" Severus continued matter-of-factly. "So officially you now own a holly and phoenix feather wand"

 

Harry nodded even though he didn't understand much of it, apart from the fact that he was supposed to keep details about his wand to himself. Severus stopped as they reached the apparition point.

 

"Is 'he' okay with apparating, or will 'he' do flying?" Severus sneered at the creature.

"I refuse to be mocked like this, I demand a name as soon as we reach where you stay" 'he' flew away but not before snapping at Severus.

"Bloody creature" Severus muttered before apparating them to Hogsmeade.

\----------------------

Harry did not know the reason, but Mushu (it was the name of a dragon in Mulan. His aunt was forced to take him along with Dudley to watch the movie, as mrs. Figg was unable to babysit him) had taken instant dislike to the professor, and he had a suspicion that the feeling was mutual.

 

Both scowled, glared and snapped (quite literally in Mushu's case) at each other at every chance they got, it provided Harry with quite an entertaining day. He set Mushu on the bedside table for the night and quickly got under the covers and gave a contended sigh as he snuggled up to professor and drifted to sleep.

 

Severus gave a sigh when he noticed the boy sleeping peacefully beside him. It had started as a solution for the boy's frequent nightmares, but now Severus didn't know what he'd do when the boy moved to his dormitory. He sighed again, the boy had wiggled his way into his life all with the subtlety of a rampaging hippogriff.

\---------------------------------

"Stop fidgeting, do you know how difficult it is to sleep when your bed is constantly moving" Mushu snapped at Harry.

 

 The professor dropped him outside the Great Hall, where he was supposed to wait until someone summoned him inside. He was going to meet Draco, and get sorted and learn magic. His heart was beating miles a minute, and his stomach was doing backflips, so yes he was nervous but he didn't need a bloody bird to tell him that.

 

"Then stop using my head as a bed" Harry bit back

"I refuse to give up on my napping bed. Finders keepers" Mushu wiggled a bit and gave a contended sigh as he found perfect position.  Harry gave a snort, of course he'd refuse. His head had become Mushu's favorite place for dozing off, he said that the wild mess was perfect place for sleeping. Harry had decided to take it as a compliment, not that he had any choice as Mushu had declared that he would be sleeping there and there was no denying him  (Harry was his human and not the other way around, Mushu had kindly cleared Harry's misconceptions)

 

Harry waited there for what felt like half an hour (which in reality was only five minutes as Mushu told him) and fidgeted.

 

"You know what, I'm going to sleep somewhere the bedding does not move" Mushu stretched his wings and flew away leaving him alone.

 

"You do that" Harry snapped after the creature.

 

A few moments later Harry nearly cried in relief as he saw someone approaching.

 

"Harry Potter ?" the bushy haired girl asked

 

Harry nodded and followed the girl through the small entrance that was supposed to lead into the Great Hall. He gasped as he took in the whole sight. It was magnificent, the floating candles gave the place a magical look; he even thought he saw a few ghosts somewhere, but the most spectacular thing was the sight above. The ceiling seemed to open up directly into the night sky, stars and all.

 

"It's enchanted to look like the outside sky" the bushy haired girl whispered "I'm Hermione Granger, by the way. Well, I suppose I should get back to my table" she gave him a smile as she left and Harry offered her one in return.

 

Harry noticed he was standing behind a long line of first years. He could see a professor wearing tartan (that must be professor McGonagall) standing at the start of the line. The rest of the staff already sat at the high table to his right. To his left there were four long tables full of students. The farthest table had banners of silver and green, Harry observed. They must be Slytherins, after them was the house of Ravenclaw, most students on that table were busy reading something and those who weren't were busy in heated discussions. Next to them was the loudest bunch of all, they must be Gryffindors, the last ones remaining must be the Hufflepuffs.

 

Professor McGonagall led the small procession to the raised platform where an old hat sat on a stool. And much to Harry's surprise, it opened near seams and actually began speaking, more like singing (in a really old, crotchety voice)

 

_Oh you may not think I'm pretty,_

_But don't judge on what you see,_

_I'll eat myself if you can find_

_A smarter hat than me._

_You can keep your bowlers black,_

_Your top hats sleek and tall,_

_For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat_

_And I can cap them all._

_There's nothing hidden in your head_

_The Sorting Hat can't see,_

_So try me on and I will tell you_

_Where you ought to be._

_You might belong in Gryffindor,_

_Where dwell the brave at heart,_

_Their daring, nerve, and chivalry_

_Set Gryffindors apart;_

_You might belong in Hufflepuff,_

_Where they are just and loyal,_

_Those patient Hufflepuffs are true_

_And unafraid of toil;_

_Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,_

_if you've a ready mind,_

_Where those of wit and learning,_

_Will always find their kind;_

_Or perhaps in Slytherin_

_You'll make your real friends,_

_Those cunning folks use any means_

_To achieve their ends._

_So put me on! Don't be afraid!_

_And don't get in a flap!_

_You're in safe hands (though I have none)_

_For I'm a Thinking Cap_!

 

The professor had explained him that it did not matter which house he was sorted into, even Hufflepuff or worse Gryffindor (even though the professor looked like he'd rather stab himself at the moment), Harry genuinely wished that he got sorted in Slytherin, Draco said he was going to be there, and the professor was Slytherin's head of house, so it would be a win-win situation for him.

 

There was a moment's silence after which professor McGonagall started calling out their names and one by one students sat on the stool and put on the hat. It was vaguely interesting for the first few minutes, then it quickly got boring, so he looked around the hall. He saw the professor sitting at the farther end of staff table sipping from his goblet. From what Harry knew about the man, he must be bored to death by now, not that Harry was in much different situation. The crowd in front of him was quickly dwindling as the first years got sorted and joined their house tables.

 

"Potter, Harry"

 

 The entire hall stilled, there was pin drop silence and he awkwardly walked up to the stool and put the hat on.

 

"Hmmm, an interesting mind, very interesting indeed"

 

Harry looked around, no one was talking.

 

"Hello?"

 

The voice was in his head, so maybe the hat was directly talking in his head.

 

"Quite a thirst to prove himself, not much regard for what others think, that's good"

 

"Hello?" Harry thought a little bit louder

"Bookworm genes. Check. Disregard for rules. Check"

"Hello" Harry said for the third time

 

"Oh you were talking to me, I thought it was just a random thought, it happens sometimes you know"

 

"What's your name?"

" My manufacturers didn't think I'd need one, only being a hat and all that, but I like Alastair... has a nice ring to it, don't you think?"

"I'm Harry"

"I already know that, don't I?" came the hat's retort

 

"So, how does this work?"

"Well, I see your memories and decide which house you'd be in, an easy job if you ask me"

"Not that, I mean how do you talk?"

"I have a mouth of course, how else would I talk"

Harry huffed either the hat didn't know or it was being purposefully stubborn.

 

"What I am asking is how do you work, obviously you would need brain or something, for processing language, input and output"

"I think I should put you in Ravenclaw, you certainly do have the aptitude for it"

"No" Harry gave a horrified gasp. "I want to be in Slytherin"

"Well, that could be a possibility, but I think you'd like Ravenclaw much better. They even have their own library"

Well, that was a sucker but Harry wouldn't trade the professor and Draco for all the books in the world

"No" Harry deadpanned

"So if you're sure"

"Yes I'd like to be in Slytherin"

"Okay then, you might very well be in - _SLYTHERIN!_ " the hat exclaimed aloud.

 

There was stunned silence in hall for a moment, which was soon replaced by a loud uproar, literally everyone was talking and pointing at him. Harry suddenly felt very nervous.

 

"Silence" professor McGonagall said sternly her voice magically amplified and the entire hall quietened down. Handing the hat back to the professor, Harry quickly slipped off the stool and walked down to the Slytherin table, searching for the familiar blonde.

\--------------------

Draco shifted a bit towards Pansy to make room for Harry on his other side, she might be his best friend but he wouldn't trust her to keep her hands to herself.

The headmaster as usual talked something gibberish at the start of the feast, right after warning everyone off the third floor unless they sought a painful death. Honestly, Draco huffed, it was as if someone slipped the old man a blabbering potion every start of the term. The food appeared and Draco helped himself to mashed potatoes and some roast, making small talk with Harry and simultaneously ignoring Pansy's increasingly insistent prodding; he was sure Blaise across the table was equally curious, though he was much better at hiding it.

 

It took him moments to realize that Harry was just staring at the table dumbfounded; Draco remembered his mother telling him to be careful with Harry. Based on how protective Severus was of the boy, and the way he behaved it wasn't difficult to connect the dots.

 

"The roast is good Harry, why don't you try some?"

 

The brunette offered him a smile and did as Draco suggested, reaching over him to grab the dish. Draco could see the outline of that round arse (a very fine arse, as far as Draco could tell, despite the robes covering it) and felt himself getting hard. Pansy stomped on his foot, hard. Draco felt his erection wilting off at the pain.

 

"You're welcome" she had the audacity to wave him off after that. Draco promptly ignored her for the rest of the meal, continuing the small talk with Harry and suggesting dishes on the table he thought Harry might like.

 

Sometime after dessert and much less enthusiastic (mostly on Draco's part) introductions, Draco, along with his two friends who were shamelessly insistent on hoarding Harry (just because he knew they were doing it just to spite him did not make it any better) followed by Crabbe and Goyle walked down to the dungeons.

 

They (and by they Draco meant Pansy and Blaise) showed Harry around a bit walking too close to the brunette for his liking, (not that there was anything to show), before heading to the Slytherin common room which was where they said their good byes and Draco (after having slapped off Pansy's hand that was going for Harry's arse) dragged Harry to their dorms putting an end to the Harry-hoarding for the day (Draco thanked merlin for the fact that Slytherins shared a dorm room with just two people).

 

Somewhere else in the castle Albus Dumbledore touched his forehead with his wand and drew forth a silvery wisp of memory, letting it float into the pensieve in front of him. The liquid rose to form exact replica of Harry Potter during sorting, seemingly in deep conversation with the Sorting Hat. He was missing something, he was sure of that, Voldemort returning, Severus finding the boy bloodied and beaten at Privet Drive, him being sorted into Slytherin... None of it was a coincidence. He sighed and put the memory away. His old age was catching up with him, or maybe it was just a coincidence. At least a man could hope.

\----------------------------

Draco straddled Harry's hips effectively pinning the smaller boy under him. The brunette blushed furiously and Draco captured those lips with his own, unable to resist the temptation any longer. They were warm, soft and perfectly pliant under his ministrations, an occasional moan slipping through them. Draco could feel the round firm arse that had served as an excellent wank material for past few days, he gave it an appreciative squeeze and Harry bucked his hips. Draco quickly set to getting those stupid robes off the other boy, but there were so many stupid buttons that thing, why couldn't wizards wear something that was more easy to get rid off, he huffed in annoyance. "Please do hurry Draco, we have potions first thing in the morning and I don't want to be late for first class of the year" Pansy said in a bored tone, inspecting her nails.

 

Draco opened his eyes, shuddering. He was sure he could still hear the not so unfamiliar cackling that prickled goosebumps on his skin. Trust Pansy to ruin a perfectly wonderful... dream. He turned around and tried to sleep, pulling the covers over his head but every time he closed his eyes his mind kept providing vividly graphic scenarios involving a certain green eyed boy. He was just going to give in and wank it off when he heard noises from other side of the room.

 

Draco checked on Harry to find him the boy thrashing in his bed, sweat slicking his skin. He stood there, unsure what to do next.

 

"Harry... Harry!" he shook the boy in hopes to wake him up from the nightmare. Harry woke up, snapping his eyes open with a sharp intake of breath.

 

"You were having a nightmare"  Draco stated the obvious

"Thank you" He muttered sheepishly.

 

Draco nodded and settled back in his bed, trying to ignore shuffling sounds originating from other side of the room. After five minutes, he could still hear Harry's attempts to sleep. After ten more minutes he'd had enough.

 

"That's it. You're bunking in with me" he said irritably, in a voice the left no room for argument. Draco was ready to physically drag the smaller teen to his bed if that meant he could get a good night's sleep.

 

Harry quietly took his pillow and settled in the other bed, Draco following suit. In retrospect Draco should have realized, sharing a bed with the sole cast of his wank fantasies may not have been the wisest decision (especially since Sev had explicitly told him off to doing anything about said fantasies ). The bed wasn't big enough to fit two people which meant they had to get 'cozy', not that Draco had any objections, quite the opposite actually; it also meant that Harry's hair was in his face. Those thick locks felt softer than they looked and smelled like green apples, Draco smiled a bit as he recognized the particular smell of Sev's hair potion.

 

Within minutes the other boy was out like a light and Draco couldn't resist burying his face in those locks and breathing in. Merlin, it should be criminal to smell so good. He decided to keep his hands to himself, or at least he tried to but bloody hell it was difficult when he could feel the heat radiating off Harry's body. Who was he kidding, he'd never been never good at resisting temptations plus it wasn't as if his godfather was going to barge into the dorms, so carefully he draped his arm around the smaller boy and drifted off to sleep.

\------------------------------

Harry nuzzled the warmth in front of him, it was so comfortable he gave a sleepy sigh. Wait, something was wrong. The professor was always gone before he woke up. His brain snidely reminded him of last night's events. He opened his eyes, it took him a moment to filter the fact that he was literally cuddling Draco. He tried to get off, but a pair of hands were holding him right where he was. he wiggled a bit to get of the hold.

 

"Bad pillow" he heard Draco murmur and stilled. The blonde gave a content sigh and wrapped his arms tighter around Harry. It took him fifteen minutes and a lot of wiggling before Draco let him go, grumbling about "morning pillows". Harry took the opportunity to go back to his own bed.

 

"Had a good night's sleep, did we?"

 

Harry jumped, startled by the voice.

 

"Y-yes" Harry flushed red. "Where were you last night?" he tried to change the topic.

"I was out hunting" the creature gave a wide yawn

"Oh"

"Yes, oh. I'll have you know that I hunted down two rogue chocolate frogs and some dastardly ice mice" he lazily flapped his wings and settled down on Harry's head, no doubt for a nap.

 

Harry snickered.

 

"I'll have none of that from someone with very deplorable choice of teddy bears"

"W-what, I don't have any teddy bears" Harry stammered and flushing at the last word as he sneaked a glance at the sleeping boy.

"Sure" Mushu's tone suspiciously smelled of sarcasm (a shop full of pets and Harry had to get one that gave him sass) and then hissed something about snarky bat-man and bony blondes.

"I'm going to take a shower" Harry muttered, thinking it was best for him if he could avoid going down this particular conversation path.

"Why do you insist on being one of those horrible morning people?" came the hissing reply.

"Well, good morning to you too" Harry said unable to think of any other sarcastic reply. Anyway, sarcasm was wasn't particularly his forte.

"There is nothing good about mornings" came the reply.

"Whatever you say grump-a-sarus" Harry quickly moved out of biting range. He knew how much Mushu hated being compared to those 'tiny brained brutes'.

 

The reptile eyed him lazily and decided that it wasn't worth it.

 

"You're lucky I'm just back from hunting, brat" he sneaked around Harry's bed trying to find a comfortable spot "now shoo, human, I need my beauty sleep"

Harry thought that it was better if he left it to that, so he quickly gathered supplies and left for the showers.

\-----------------------------

"Would you just shag him already" Pansy sat beside him, filling her dish with frozen pineapple and some toast.

"I don't know what you're talking about" Draco bit down on the toast, glaring over at Harry and Nott who were busy discussing charms theory.

"Oh just snog him already" Blaise settled in front of him.

"Pansy please tell him I don't know what he's talking about"

 

Pansy snorted into her pumpkin juice

 

"Don't you have something else to do, like minding your own bloody business?" Draco snapped.

"Oooh, someone got up on the wrong side of the bed" Pansy pretended to start a conversation with Blaise "you know, denial does not suite him"

"I'm sitting right here" they both ignored the blonde, in favor of pissing him off. Obviously.

"Nor does grumpy, apparently" the traitor sitting opposite to him joined Pansy's team.

"Again. I'm sitting right here and I'm not grumpy. Malfoys don't do grumpy" Draco told them grumpily.

"Well, you're too blonde to be brooding" Pansy informed him. What the hell was that even supposed to mean? Draco scowled.

"Besides, that's hardly any improvement over grumpy" Blaise dug into his sausages.

 

"You know this kind off reminds me of that summer vacation. Wittle  Dwaco's first cwush"

"You promised not to talk about it" Draco hissed

"What was it again? - valen something.."

"She's talking about it" he looked over to Blaise for help. The traitor just shrugged. “I hate you both"

"No need to be drama queen, darling. I don't know about him" she pointed towards Blaise "but I have on good authority that you absolutely adore me"

 He opened his mouth to tell his best friend off but was distracted by the arrival of owl post. Throwing the owl an bit of toast he took the day's prophet attached to its leg and grimaced immediately. "The boy who lived going dark? Harry Potter sorted in Slytherin" the headline screamed, flashing a grainy shot of Harry in Diagon beneath it. He looked over at the staff table and  judging by dark looks he was throwing towards a group of students pouring over the newspaper, his godfather seemed to have read it too. Seeing as Harry had yet to start on his porridge he quickly scanned the article, as he suspected it was the usual shite wrote by Rita Skeeter, not that mattered to most of the wizarding population who lapped the stuff up like niffler did galleons.

He looked up to find that Harry was done with the porridge (and thankfully Nott too) and was peering over his shoulder, trying to see what he was reading. Hastily, he tossed the paper to Blaise and dragged Harry to get to their first lesson, dutifully ignoring Pansy's advice about broom cupboard's and silencing charms (as tempting as it was, Draco would rather have his genitals intact, Sev was a man of his word).

\---------------------------

"Oh look, it's the boy who lived to be a traitor" a gangly ginger boy said loudly as they arrived in transfiguration corridor.

"And looks like he's got his first death eater too" said another black haired boy standing beside him.

"Fuck off weasel, and pass the message to your lackeys too". Usually his insults were far more elegant, but Draco was already pissed off and he'd noticed Harry fidgeting uncomfortably since the start of the conversation.

"Are you alright?" Draco asked him quietly and Harry nodded in reply.

"ooh, looks like Potter's got a new boyfriend" came another taunt.

Draco was about to tell the weasel where he could kindly shove his reply when McGonagall arrived, looking stern.

 

Harry scribbled furiously as the Scottish witch revised last year's concepts. This year they were going to learn animate to animate transformations so he supposed he had a lot to catch up on. After weeks of rigorous studying he had managed to catch up with two years worth of syllabus, that too with far less practice in actual spell casting. An hour into the lecture they were given mice (3 per bench) and were supposed to turn them into rabbits or hares (Harry didn't actually think there was any difference).

 

"Mr. potter" Harry, too busy poring over his scribbled material didn't notice till Draco poked him on the ribs.

"Oh" he looked up to find professor McGonagall staring down at him

"I'm sorry I was just-"

"That's alright" she gave him a light smile "how was the lesson?" she inquired

"I didn't understand most of it. I'm sorry" he said sheepishly.

"I suppose it's a lot to take in. I trust professor Snape has already explained you about the exams". Harry nodded, he was supposed to pass tests set in each subject at the end of the year before he would be allowed to take his O.W.Ls.

 

"Professor Snape informed me you are familiar with the first two year's curriculum" Harry nodded "let's see what you know then"

"Transfigure this into a quill" she said pointing at the rodent on his table. Harry took out his wand nervously, he had tried this previously on Mushu but in the end the jewelry box still had wings and tried to bite his finger off.

" _Transverto_ " he pointed his wand at the rodent who lazily tried to get away from it. Nothing happened.

Harry could already feel everyone's eyes at him and did his best to ignore the stares.

" _Transverto_ " he whispered, more forceful this time. He felt a sharp tug in his stomach and a brown quill lay on the table in front of him, he turned and smiled at Draco only to find that his mouse had been turned into a quill, so had every other rodent in the entire class.

 

"Can't wait to show off can you potter?" Harry recognized the ginger from start of the class.

"Five points from Gryffindor mr. Weasley" the witch said sternly "if I hear another word unrelated to your assignment you'll be in detention". The boy scowled at him.

"Now get back to your assignments and do not tell me that you cannot reverse a second year transfiguration" the Gryffindor head of house added sternly.

 

She turned back to Harry and had him transfigure the quill into an ink pot, a set of scales and a goblet successively and then reverse the transformations in the same sequence. Harry, who was a lot more confident after the success of the first spell performed a lot more smoothly. There was sweat on his brows by the time he was done and the rat looked a bit dizzy.

 

"Very good mr. Potter" it was really impressive, Minerva thought, even if there were few metallic streaks on the rodents back, but then the boy hadn't known anything about magic a month ago.  "Twenty points to Slytherin" she gave him a smile "you can find me in my office if you have any questions".

 

"Professor McGonagall" Harry called out as she was just about to leave. "I know this is going to sound stupid" he started rambling "but before I came here I studied physics, it's muggle science and there's this thing called relativity. Einstein, a muggle scientist, proved that total energy of an object is directly proportional to its mass".

Harry noticed McGonagall staring at him, a small smile on her lips. And so were Draco and Blaise, though in identical expressions of horror. "So theoretically speaking", he continued "if someone was to turn a rodent into a quill the excess energy due to difference in the mass of both objects would be released spontaneously resulting in an explosion" he knew he was totally rambling now but it was like verbal diarrhea, he just couldn't stop. This had been eating him for weeks now.

 

"I know the book says that it is released in the ether, but then ether is just space and-" the Scottish witch stopped him

"Breathe mr. Potter, and I may have a better solution" she turned around to the other part of class "ms. Granger, I believe you may be able to help mr. Potter here"

 

Minerva turned and left as quickly as she could. It seemed that ms. Granger may have found another member of her species and she did not wish to witness the event or any research frenzies that may soon occur. Poor Irma.

\---------------------------

"Granger" Draco sneered. It had been weeks since professor McGonagall sicked Granger on them and she was stuck like some irritating piece of muggle gum that refused to come off. And the worst part was that Harry spent large amounts of time cooped up in the library with the buck toothed hare, the only thing that made the situation remotely better was that Harry was still bunking in his bed - it was sort of an unspoken understanding they had came to. The only other time they spent together (if he managed to fend off Blaise and Pansy that is) was dinner as Granger insisted on monopolizing Harry during other the meals too. Something bitter clawed in his chest when Harry blushed around Granger, which sadly was becoming a more and more common occurrence.

 

"It's my name, ferret face, can you not make it sound like an insult?" she said without looking up from the book she was literally immersed in.

"I very much doubt that, besides I don't have to make it anything other than what it already is"

 

"Why is she here?" Draco drawled when he saw Harry approaching them, carrying a bag full of books.

"I can still hear you, you know"

Draco ignored her and stared at the boy in front of him, demanding an answer.

"She's, you know-" Harry smiled sheepishly at him

"No, I don't know" he snapped, feeling the anger rise in his chest "you promised me Granger-free time"

"I'm not some kind of infestation, you ferrety git!"

"You might as well be" The blonde sneered, noticing the brunette getting ready to step in; to defend bloody Granger and something dark clawed in his chest "Why don't you take your sorry arse and go bother someone else instead of pathetically clinging to anyone who shows a shred of interest like a bloody creep" he spat, seeing the witch silent made his anger seethe even further "What? No answer this time?". Breathing hard, Draco saw the look on the witch's face and suddenly realized that he may have crossed some sort of line. Granger stood up and was gone before he could utter another word. He turned Harry, who looked like he was about to give Draco some talking to.

 

"Shut up, I know I went too far" he shrunk the brooms and placed them in his pocket. Harry's flying lessons would have to wait. He looked at the boy, silently asking him to come with him.

"Why would I want to do that?" Harry smiled a bit, perhaps a side effect from leaving the boy unsupervised with Pansy.

"Because if she kills me, I'll come back as a ghost and haunt you for the rest of your life" the older boy replied seriously.

 

Harry deemed that reason enough and followed Draco back to the castle.


	4. The lady doth protest too much

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 80 Kudo's, you guys are just awesome!!!  
> P.S-As usual the chapter has been beta'ed by the lovely Dinky_dog. That reminds me, this story is not at all canon compliant (as I'm sure y'all might've noticed). so that's that. Thank you for reading!!!

"Can’t you eat a bit faster?" Harry said, stuffing his face with treacle tart

"This may very well be my last meal" Draco said dramatically "before I go and confront the wildebeest called Granger, let me savor it"

"Has he always been this bloody drama queen?" Harry asked pansy who was busy pretending a conversation with Blaise, both of whom in fact were sadistically enjoying Draco's current predicament.

"It gets worse near the winter" the witch replied cheekily

"My theory is that it's all the imported chocolate he eats near Halloween" Blaise piped and Harry snickered

"That is utter rubbish" Draco squawked indignantly "besides I don't even like Halloween, it's a stupid muggle holiday"

"The lady doth protest too much, methinks" Harry grinned, though the reference was lost on all the three of them they understood the gist.

"Remind me to give you a detention on next Hogsmeade weekend" Draco drawled "for conspiring against an innocent house mate"

"As you wish, your prattiness" Harry said, while at the same time Blaise mouthed "innocent". After living in the same dorm for five years the pair knew the blonde was anything but. They laughed knowingly and Draco glared. The friendly banter went on few more minutes, when Harry reminded Draco that they still had three floors to cover before curfew and Draco was going to be alone for prefect duty that night, with Hermione. The brunette knew he ought to be angry with the boy for insulting Hermione, but he couldn't bring himself to be mad at the blonde, he knew from experience the boy was a git but he didn't mean it - most of the times.

 Just as they got up to leave, professor Lockhart - or as Draco had named him - 'the bloody peacock' ran into the great hall, shouting

" **TROLL, THERE'S A TROLL IN THE DUNGEONS** "

There was a sudden buzz of noise when everyone started talking.

"PLEASE MAINTAIN CALM" the headmaster cast a _sonorous_ to get over the din "PREFECTS WILL ESCORT YOU TO YOUR RESPECTIVE HOUSES, SLYTHERINS ARE TO REMAIN IN THE GREAT HALL"

"Hermione" Harry hissed "she doesn't know about the troll"

Very well, Draco sighed he supposed it was partially his fault that Granger wasn't in the Great Hall.

"What do you think you're doing?" Pansy hissed when Draco got up to leave

"Granger's still out there" the blonde answered

"How very-"

"Gryffindor of me, I know" he cut her off "you can lecture me all you want after I'm back" he huffed "right now cover for me, no questions asked"

"Fine" she glared at him "but if you die, I'm making sure they write ‘stupidest dumb-arse ever’ on your grave"

Draco deemed the comment unworthy of his reply and slipped out of the hall through the chaos that ensued. He noticed Harry trailing after him on the first floor passage; he must have slipped in with Ravenclaws who turned left on the staircase to get to the tower.

"What?" the brunette said "you didn't think you were going alone, did you?"

"Sev is going to kill me" he groaned

 

They heard noises from far end of the corridor and quickly ran in the direction. It was coming from the girl's bathroom. They ran in to find the troll towering over Hermione, his club raised ready to strike.

" _Aculeus ictus_ " Harry said the same time as tiny yellow birds shot from Draco's wand, barreling down on the troll’s back. That was enough to get its attention.

The troll turned his head and Harry's stinging hex caught him in the eye. Enraged, it let out a roar and threw its wooden club at them. Draco cast a quick _protego_ as they scampered to get out of its range.

" _Dimitto_ " Harry yelled, casting dismissing charm from under the sink that sent the wood propelling backwards but it had already hit the shimmering shield, leaving it in pieces that shimmered out of existence. The backlash sent Draco reeling into the nearby wall and Harry winced when he heard a sound crack. The club hit the troll squarely in face, knocking him out cold. It fell down with a loud crash, taking most of the bathroom with it. Harry rushed over to the bushy haired witch, who seemed to be looking for something in the rubble.

"My wand is in there somewhere" she said "can you?" she gestured towards his wand.

He nodded " _accio_ Hermione's wand”

The piece of wood shot from a seemingly endless pile of rubble, straight into his hands.  "Here" he handed it over;  the witch muttered a quiet thank you.

"Are you alright?" Harry asked, not knowing what else to say

"I'm fine Potter, thank you for asking" Draco snapped from the other end of the room. Harry rushed to Draco when the Headmaster, professor McGonagall and professor Snape burst in, wands at the ready.

Harry swallowed thickly; the professor looked positively murderous as he took in the situation.

"Care to explain Mr. Potter?" Dumbledore said, calmly shooting a powerful stunner when the troll twitched a bit.

"Actually-"

"It’s my fault professor" Hermione cut him off "I wanted to study a troll up close. I thought I could handle it" she lied through her teeth, and if Harry hadn't been there he would've believed her

"Foolish girl" the dark haired man hissed "what were you thinking?"

"Severus" the older man interrupted "Mr. Malfoy needs medical attention. I suppose they all do"

The man scowled as the headmaster guided all three miscreants to the infirmary.

\----------------------

"Prefects acting like halfwits" Severus was apoplectic with rage; it was sheer dumb luck that they survived the encounter without much damage, save for Draco who had a bruised rib.

"That will be 50 points - each" he snapped when he saw Draco open his mouth "you'll all be doing detentions with me for rest of the week… 20 inches on dangers of your idiotic decisions, their possible consequences and the proper course of action you should have taken" three faces stared at him in utter horror. "Leave them at my desk by tomorrow noon; tardiness or an unacceptable essay will result in the next essay being double the length in half the time"

"But-"

The voices quelled when he threw them a dark look. He turned around and left the room, his robes billowing around him. That should teach them right; Severus knew for a fact that his godson hated writing and Harry hadn't properly managed to use a quill yet. He hated to admit that he was ready to have a heart attack when he couldn't find the damn brat in the great hall.

\-----------------------

"Sherbet lemon?"

"Pity" he said when his former student shook his head.

"Do hurry up Albus, I have a potion simmering that will take half of my lab with it if I don't get down there in exactly 23 minutes" Severus drawled

"It shouldn't take long" Albus smiled "it's been weeks since start of the term and I thought a check up Mr. Potter's progress was due"

"Minerva says that he has a deft hand at transfiguration" Severus couldn't help a hint of pride in his voice "at potions too if I could say so myself"

"Well that's a first" those blue eyes twinkled

"What?" then Severus noticed the look in those eyes "no, I will thank you to keep whatever it is you're going to say to yourself"

"I was just saying-"

"I don't want to hear it"

"That for the first time-"

"What part of I don't want to hear it don't you understand"

"Don't make me stick fingers in my ears and scream LALALALALA because I will"

"Please do, it will make for a good Christmas card" he smiled when Severus glared at him.

"You are a balky old coot, do you know that?"

"Or so I’ve been told" the man popped a lemon drop.

Severus sighed in defeat, it was a lost cause.

"As I was saying, it’s the first time you're ever praised a student"

"That’s hardly any praise" Severus huffed, as if he'd ever do that. With all the sweets and a grinning child hanging off his arms in Diagon, his reputation was hanging by a thread already.

"If you say so" Albus said, though the dark haired man seriously doubted genuineness of those words.

"Filius told me the boy's nearly covered up till 3rd and 4th year syllabus quite well" Albus remembered the over enthusiastic charms master "though he was quite unhappy to see such an inquisitive mind not being sorted in his house"

"He’s a nuisance, that's what he is" Severus couldn't keep a hint of fondness out of his voice

"I've never seen Minerva more terrified of a student, well apart from Ms. Granger" a smile threatened to break on Severus' lips. His reputation had so far saved him from late night questions and discussion of new theories at ungodly hours but the same could not be said Filius or Minerva (apparently the Terrible Two had yet to torment the herbology professor).

"As much as I'd like to sit and chat I do have a potion to tend to" the headmaster nodded. "Night Albus"

 

Albus gave a sigh as when the man stepped through the floo. The more he thought about Harry's seemingly exceptional genius the more worried he became. It was impossible for a child with no magical background what so ever to be proficient in four years worth of magical theory in a matter of weeks. It could be just that the boy was a prodigy, but Albus had seen far too much of wars to be that wet behind the ears. He touched his temple with his wand drew front silvery wisps of memories. He picked up a small vial lying on his table and poured in another few he'd gathered from surveillance charms all over the castle. The liquid in pensieve shined brightly as memories dissolved in a silvery vortex. Casting locking charms on the door and the floo with a careless flick of his wand, he dove into the memory.

 

He landed in the girls’ bathroom, replaying events from earlier that night. The only thing bothering him was the large amount of residual magic. Even with three underage wizards was impossible to use that much magic and not fall down with magical exhaustion. What was even more unusual was that the residue was spread over a spectrum but it was too synchronous to be given off by many wizards (Albus suspected at least three)… Not to mention any of them had shown any signs of magical exhaustion.

The surroundings changed as the memory ran its course, and Albus found himself standing beside the Black Lake. The boy was sitting with his usual group of Slytherins - Malfoy, Parkinson, Zabini, Theodore Nott sat a bit apart from the group, reading something while two of them stood leaning against a tree, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle, if he remembered correctly. After a few minutes of watching them chatting and laughing (and using apples to play catch with the giant squid), he decided to skip the memory.

Contrary to the popular belief he had nothing against the Slytherins, they just needed an occasional eye on them given that they tended to have generous disposition towards the Dark Arts; even if he understood the fact that it was mostly due their family background and pureblood upbringing.

The next memory landed in the Quidditch pitch. There he found the familiar black mop beside the infamous blonde. The Slytherin prefect was apparently trying to coach the dark haired boy in flying with a broom, while said boy was sitting on (barely), with a white knuckled grasp on the handle and eyes shut in horror, leaving the other boy to keep them from crashing. He noticed Harry's pet (another mystery he'd have to look into) perched on the edge, its expression similar to dogs he had seen, sticking their heads out of muggle cars. The memory ended as both the boys landed on solid ground, relief evident on the dark haired boy's face. Albus was relieved to see Harry acting so... normal.

 

The last memory landed him in the greenhouse 6, in middle of a Gryffindor/ Slytherin herbology session. It looked like they were extracting nectar from moonlaces; not a terribly difficult job, as long as the flowers were happy, otherwise they tended to spray foul smelling liquid or bite any appendage available nearby.

He saw the boys working on their sapling at the far end of the table. The blonde worked on slowly coaxing it to release nectar from the little bag on its stem, just beneath the petals, while the other worked on loosening the soil, humming some song.

"Wimoweh o, wimoweh o, wimoweh o… " It looked more out of habit than anything else

"In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight… In the jungle, the quiet jungle, the lion sleeps tonight…"

The tune was oddly catchy, Albus thought as he himself hummed along a bit.

 

The class collectively groaned when Crabbe-Goyle's sapling sprayed them with the foul liquid, and Albus was thankful that memories did not give any smells.

"Here, let me" the dark haired boy quickly added some moon calf manure to the soil and mixed it with practiced ease.

"Potter get your singing arse back here righ-" the blonde was covered in green gunk "arrgh" it sprayed again and this time it caught him in the eye.

A Malfoy in less than presentable state, now Albus could officially say he'd seen everything.

The boy was back but not before nudging the two other members of the group he'd seen in the earlier memory. He quickly resumed humming the catchy tune and stroked its petals, it gave a soft croon and Harry laughed while the Malfoy boy glared, dare he say grumpily. All in all, an average herbology session - albeit an interesting one.

With a flick of his wand Albus landed into the last memory. He was not at all surprised to find himself in the library, Harry engrossed in a seemingly heated discussion with Ms. Granger.

 

"I'm not totally rejecting it, but I just don't see it" the bushy haired witch said

"It's right there, like-like a complementary frequency" the dark haired boy argued

"I don't see how it'd fit into the dimensional axes"

"Oh for the love of god, would you just let go of the ruddy three dimensions" the boy sounded frustrated, to say in the least.

"Oh" she gasped as realization dawned upon her "If the vibrations are perpendicular to z axis, that would make it completely analogous to-"

"Electromagnetism, exactly" he smiled

"Are you two dorks done yet" a familiar blonde drawled "dinner's nearly over and I, for one refuse to go down to the kitchens to eat like a bloody plebeian"

"Yes your royal arseness" Harry gave him a mock bow

"That’s now even a word"

"One needs to invent new ones to describe your gittiness, sire" came the snickering reply

In a way the pair reminded Albus of James and Sirius, the brunette packed everything wordlessly with a sweep of his wand and he felt it again. Pausing the memory with a twitch of his wand, Albus studied the scene. The residue was particularly concentrated around Harry, he closely inspected the wand boy was carrying. No wand could channel that much energy, not without completely burning out its core. Maybe except for One - but he had it secure in his pocket. It wasn't holly and phoenix feather, that much he was sure of, he wouldn't be surprised if Severus was not telling him something. The man was Slytherin through and through, just because he was loyal to Albus didn't mean he trusted him. Albus watched the rest of the memory, though nothing but happened other than teasing banter.

 

Albus thought for a long time after he stepped back into his office. He had noticed the skill and ease with which the boy performed non verbal spells; it had been what, three months since the boy had even known about magic. There was no way it was possible without some kind of expert tutelage, but Severus had admitted to tutoring the boy only for basic _lumos_ and levitation charms. Unless… all the blood drained from his face as he desperately hoped he was wrong.


	5. Persistent Grangers and Personal Revelations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank You lovelies for the amazing response. I always like to hear what you guys think of the story, so please review!!!  
> P.S-Beta'ed. Thanks to the lovely Dinky_dog. All mistakes are mine. Until next Time!!!

Draco huffed as he put his quill down, finally done with his twenty inches. Sev maybe his godfather but the man was one sadistic bastard, Draco picked up the stack of books by his side and put them back on the shelves. It was one of the perks of being a prefect, 24x7 access to the library. Of course madam Pomfrey had insisted to keep them under supervision, and Granger had offered (oh, so kindly) to breach the monitoring charms once the mediwitch had gone to sleep. Besides, even if they got up early in the morning they'd have barely enough time to fill twenty inches of parchment, let alone write something that Severus would deem acceptable. And Draco wasn't exactly keen on writing another 40 inches, so library it was. By the time he was back, Granger was nearly done with her essay while Harry was snoring softly with his head on the parchment.

The blonde waited until Granger was out of sight, stacking books in the other section before slightly tugging the parchment trapped under the sleeping boy's hands. The boy looked so peaceful; Draco didn't realize until now, Harry had such long lashes. It was probably because of those green eyes of his. Small puffs of breath escaped into the cold air of the library, from those perfectly shaped albeit a bit chapped lips. Draco had never wanted to kiss anyone more than he wanted to kiss the dark haired boy at the moment. He forced himself to concentrate on the parchment: it was nearly the required length all right, but Harry's penmanship left a lot to be desired, there were splotches of ink on the parchment, whole sentences were crossed out and many words were over written, on top of it the messy scrawl Harry called his handwriting did not make things better. Sev may adore the boy but the man's hair would turn pink before he would accept the essay. With a quick spell his wand absorbed splotches and the scratched out sentences from the parchment. That was all he could do but the parchment at least looked a bit presentable now. It suddenly struck him how sappy it must look; Pansy would die of laughter if she ever found out. He almost considered undoing his spell, but then reasoned that the messy parchment might be reason enough for Sev to be irritated and make all of them redo their essays. He quickly put it back when he heard Granger approaching.

"Should we wake him up?" the witch asked quietly

Draco glanced at the boy; he looked like a sleeping angel - a slightly drooling one, to be precise - and it terrified Draco how much he found it endearing. A month into the school Draco had accepted that he liked Harry, their nightly cuddling sessions did not help with that nor did Draco's certain frequent dreams. But the fact remained that he did not know Harry's preferences; in addition to that, he didn't want to ruin things between them: Harry, dare he say it, was a quite good friend and most importantly Sev would kill him, slowly and painfully. Merlin, he was turning into a sappy emotional mess of a Hufflepuff wasn't he, he sighed inwardly.

"Malfoy??" Granger said quizzically

"It’s alright, he sleeps like a log" a sloppy excuse if there was one, but if the witch saw through it she didn't say anything.

"Can you get his bag?" the witch nodded in response.

Draco braced himself as he gently scooped up Harry into the arms. The smaller boy gave a soft groan, shifting a bit and burying his face in Draco's chest. A wave of smug satisfaction washed over Draco; Hermione noticed the interaction and was shooting them furtive and contemplative glances alternatively. Draco sighed inwardly; it was going to be long walk to the infirmary.

\------------------------

"I shouldn't have said that, you know, earlier today" Draco said when the silence finally became unbearable, anyways he was going to apologize to Granger. What better way to do it, when there were no witnesses and he could flat out deny the incident later, if need be? "I apologize" he finally said

"Huh?"

"I said I'-"

"Oh bugger off" he said when he caught the look on her face.

"It was worth a try" she grinned and Draco offered a tentative smile in return.

"You were right, you know" she said after a few minutes of silence "about me not having any other friends" she smiled sadly

"What about those two Gryffindors that used to hang around you?" Draco inquired

"Actually, it was the other way around"

"Why did you take the blame today?" he asked, unable to keep it in anymore. She could've easily left them to fend for themselves and with her being star pupil and all she could've easily gotten off with just a flick on the wrist.

"I would've been squashed to death if you and Harry weren't there" she peeked at the sleeping boy. Draco wanted to point out that she wouldn't have been there if not for him, but why take a saw to the branch you're sitting on. So he just nodded silently.

 

The air grew chillier as they neared the dungeons and Harry suddenly shivered. Draco managed to get a bit of his cloak around the smaller teen, it wasn't much but it'd have to do as Draco couldn't quite reach his wand.

"You really like him don't you" Granger observed

Gryffindorks, how they survived one would never know.

"No" he said flatly, and he'd continue to do so, Harry had become too close a friend to ruin their friendship with... he stopped that train of thought, that was a dangerous territory.

"You don't think I'm that stupid do you?"

"What response on my part would lead to a quick end of this conversation" Draco drawled

"I can't believe you still haven't, you know" she blushed "with you two sharing a dorm and your reputation as a…" Granger paused, probably to find a word that wouldn't offend him and ruin the conversation "Casanova". She managed to do it nonetheless

“Casanova?”

“A famed muggle character, known for his, ahem" she stuttered "numerous love affairs”

"Contrary to your belief Granger, I'm not completely devoid of morals" Draco snapped (though Blaise, that wanker would heartily disagree) "friends are off limits, it ruins friendships" he felt a bit irritated at the fact that Granger knew about his feelings too, despite the fact that he all but served it to her on a silver platter.

"Well that's very Gryffi-"

"Don’t say it”

The witch would've continued if the blonde wasn't frothing at the corners of his mouth.

"That’s why you were gittier this year" it dawned on her "you were jea-"

"First of all, that's not even a word. I really expected more from you Granger" he cut her off "and second, you're never going to let it go, are you?"

"I think you know me better than that Malfoy"

"And what exactly do you intend to achieve by all this?" Draco huffed; they were only halfway to the infirmary

"Research shows that personal revelations are great for bonding; in fact, most friendships start with them"

"I don't know what gave you that impression Granger" he gave her a half-hearted sneer "I assure you, you're thoroughly and utterly wrong"

"You're going to have to try harder than that Malfoy" she saw clearly through his ruse "you might as well do it, you know" she glanced at the sleeping boy who'd come to be a much better friend than any of her peers " I'm not going anywhere so you might as well get used to me anyway"

"I'm not bonding" he sneered at the word "with you Granger" the witch wasn't half bad, and he was right. She did kind grow on him (it was more like an infestation one couldn't get rid of) but that did not mean he liked her and it most certainly did not mean that he wanted to be 'friends' with her.

"And I'm done talking" he said when he saw her opening her mouth, no doubt to say something annoying "go annoy someone else"

"I wonder what Parkinson might pay for this memory" she gestured at him holding Harry bridal style. The blonde glared at her "What? You lot aren't exactly subtle during meals"

"You wouldn't dare" he hissed

Hermione’s eyes glinted with a Gryffindorkish look and Draco realized his mistake, never challenge a Gryffindor, even one as nerdy as Granger.

"You're bluffing. You can't blackmail me, you're too Ms. Goody-two-shoes for that” He stuttered an argument thinner than parchment.

"Are you willing you risk it?"

The blonde pinned her with a hard stare

"Don’t worry I'm even willing to make a trade" Hermione grinned. The fish had taken the bait.

"How generous of you Granger" he snapped, the witch stared at him, unfazed.

"I was jealous, alright?" Draco admitted defeat, this was the lesser evil. If Pansy got hold of this, she'd never let him live it down. "What else was I supposed to think? You both were, holed up in the library all the bloody time. In the deserted corner around the muggle section-"

"Oy, get your mind out of gutter Malfoy" she slapped him lightly on arm. "You know, that one doesn't count" she said after a moment. "I already knew, and besides you just repeated my words. With the added backdrop of kinky library sex”

Draco gave her a pointed look that conveyed the message that he was about to tell her to kindly fuck off, amongst other things.

"There's no need for death threats and other such dramatics Malfoy" She waved him off

The blonde huffed; apparently he needed to work on that one

"Come on Malfoy we can even make a Pinocchio promise"

 Finally Granger's inner Gryffindork was showing up.

Draco nodded slowly giving her a disgruntled look; it wouldn't do to seem too eager. A Pinocchio promise, despite of its ridiculous name was a quite useful charm. It was similar to an unbreakable oath, the difference being that the offender would find their nose growing longer and longer instead of losing their magic.

\--------------------------

"S-so you mean to say-" the stupid giggling bint said, between peals of laughter that had been going on for past few minutes. The bushy haired witch took a deep breath and stopped laughing, or at least she tried to.

"So you really told that French waiter you loved him and tried to buy him" she snickered

"First of all I was eight" the blonde said pointedly "second, I was trying to rescue him, I never thought anybody would willing be stuck in such a menial service position like a house elf"

"How noble of you, Malfoy" and the laughing started again.

Draco huffed indignantly; Granger was sneakier than he thought, wording the promise so he'd to reveal his most embarrassing secret, but the same went for Granger. Besides the fact that they couldn't reveal the night's revelations to anybody else went more in his favor than hers, considering the sleeping boy he was currently carrying in his arms, and so did the fact that Granger would look absolutely hideous with a hag like nose.

"You realize Granger that I will refuse to shrink your hag like nose should any of this ridiculous exchange get out"

"Of course" she flashed him a bright smile, which Draco refused to acknowledge on principle and they walked in silence for a few minutes.

"Out with it Granger" the blonde sniped half-heartedly as they neared the infirmary. Personally he'd rather have her grow hag like nose for not keeping her part of the bargain, but Granger was persistent if nothing else. And he didn't want to endure a hideous Granger; the nerdy Gryffindork version was quite enough.

"I-" the blonde gave an irritated huff when Granger blushed profusely and her Gryffindor courage seemed to show up "in first year I had a crush on you"

"You did, do you?" the blonde gave her a half crooked grin

"HAD Malfoy" the witch told him "now I think you're just a pointy little git"

"I have you know Granger that nothing about me is little" Draco smirked

The bushy haired witch blushed at the not so subtle innuendo. With the infirmary door nearly in sight, the witch rushed forward before he could say anything else. Draco slowly followed her and found her waiting by the small opening she had created in the monitoring charm.

The blonde moved inside the perimeter of the spell, careful not to disturb the breach Granger had maintained. They were looking at days of endless boredom and foul tasting medicines if the mediwitch found that they snuck out. He tried to unload the weight in his arms on the nearby bed but the boy had a firm hold on his robes. Shifting a bit so that Granger couldn't see, Draco laid the boy on the mattress and with a few tugs he was free. The smaller boy shivered a bit and Draco stomped on the ridiculous urge to tuck him in. Then he decided that it was in fact a bit nippy and cast a generalized warming charm over their beds. He turned to get into his bed to find Granger diligently weaving back the threads of magic; the blonde had to grudgingly admit, he was impressed. Dismantling wards was some pretty advanced stuff, unraveling and weaving them together even more so. Five years living in the Hogwarts’ library must've paid off, he thought as the witch settled down on her bed.

"You know, we have to check out in about-" the witch cast a quick tempus charm "hour and half. Or else Professor Snape will be suspicious"

They had double potions in tomorrow and with their sleep addled brains, Sev had the perfect opportunity to dock off points and assign even more detentions. Draco groaned. Sev knew how to be a proper bastard didn't he?

\-------------------------------

Half an hour later Draco was still tossing and turning in his bed as sleep eluded him. With Granger being a quiet sleeper, the only sound he could hear was Harry's soft snores. The little git was perfectly asleep, the blonde noticed, irritated.

He pointedly told himself that he did not miss the warmth or the way that git's cuddly body fit against his perfectly, he felt himself getting hard at the thought. While Harry in his bed every night was a very welcome thought, it meant that Draco did not have a decent wank in weeks. He hastily cast privacy charms and thought about those deep green eyes as he tugged on the hard flesh. He wondered how those thick locks would feel against his fingers, the smaller boy gasping as he nibbled on those lips and then leaving marks on that delicious collar bone. A memory of a few nights ago came unbidden to his mind, of Harry was sleeping in his bed, bare feet and looking all sorts of rumpled, his shirt riding up to reveal a patch of pale skin, the image was enough to push him over the edge and with a silent gasp, he came. Casting a quick scrougify, he flicked his wand lazily to release the privacy charms and let the soft snores lull him to sleep.


	6. The Secret to Success as Resident Pranksters

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again!! As you might've guessed from chapter title it's time for some Weasley mischief. The chapter as usual has been beta'ed by the lovey Dinky_dog. And please review, I love to read what you think of the story... Now without further ado...

"Ms. Granger, you will be spending some time with the walls, it works wonders for one’s brains, though I doubt if you have one given your idiotic actions" he scowled darkly when the Gryffindor prefect opened her mouth, he suspected the know-it-all would be the type to hate doing nothing more than anything.

"And I'm revoking your library privileges for a week"

"but-" the witch protested

"Mr. Potter's as well"

"You can't-"

"Two weeks"

"How are we-"

"Four weeks" she finally seemed to catch on and walked towards the farthest wall of potions classroom, looking like someone just kicked her crup. Her punishment seemed a bit childish, but act like a child and get treated like one, and he was sure Granger would be bored to death, sitting alone with wall for better part of the week. That and a month without books would be enough for Granger to think a thousand times before doing something equally moronic.

 

"As for you, Mr. Malfoy" he turned towards his godson, oh he was going to enjoy this one " you will be getting to know the cauldrons" any other time and he would have cackled evilly at the look of absolute terror on Draco's face, but right now he was too furious for that. Maybe some other time.

"But Sev- "

"Two weeks"

The blonde seemed to catch on quicker than Granger and trudged towards the used cauldrons without saying anything else. With that, the dark haired man got back to his grading; he had already seen Harry to the records room to redo the ones that had faded with time. After quite some time he got up, realizing something.

"Do not slack off" the blonde feigned innocence when his eyes narrowed at Draco "I will know" and the man left, his robes billowing behind him dramatically.

\-----------------------

"Looks like someone got lost"

"Ooh and a Slytherin too, you must have messed up real bad"

 

Harry turned around to find two identical redheads standing behind him, holding a brush and a bucket in a hand.

"I can't believe someone this cute could do-"

"-something mischief-y, I know Gred"

"Well, Snape does usually reserves this detention for-"

"-um let's say special offenders"

 

It was disorienting; really, really disorienting

"Huh?"

 

"I think we broke him, Gred"

"I think so too, Forge"

 

"Are you twins?"

"Oh a smart one too" one on the left commented, laughing when Harry glared at him a bit. Harry got back to his writing as they plopped down beside him.

"Toffee??" he heard them say after a few minutes. Harry eyed the identical pieces of candy in one of the twin's hand warily, it just smelled funny. Nodding he took a piece and pretended to put it in his mouth, while actually letting it fall down voluminous swell of robes around his arms. As he slid his arm down it slid back into his palm and he quietly stuffed it into his pocket. The twin near to him seemed to notice his little trick but didn't say anything, while the other one stared at him for a few moments and then quizzically at the sweet and then popped it into his mouth.

There was a puff of smoke and seconds later Harry was looking at a blue canary whose chirp sounded suspiciously like laughing.

Somewhere else in the castle Severus realized that he may have made a mistake that would haunt him forever.

\-------------------------

"Harry"

The boy in question was casting a spell as turned towards the voice.

"Hey Drac-" he continued after a stunned moment "-o" behind him Pansy started snickering and turned into full blown rolling on the floor laughter as Blaise joined her.

Draco stared at them quizzically.

"I have to meet Hermione in the library" he said hastily, trying to hold his laughter at the sight of oblivious blonde, well ex-blonde.

The brunette saw Pansy handing Draco a mirror and scampered towards the dungeon' entrance, avoiding a stinging hex sent his way.

He laughed as he ran down the corridors; he could still hear Draco shrieking all the way from dungeons.

\-------------------------

Harry found the twins in their usual spot; it was a small room behind the tapestry of a singing mule on the fourth floor. Sweaty from running all the way from dungeons, he flopped down on one of the throw cushions.

"Hey Gred" he waited for a moment before addressing the other twin, it always pissed him off "Forge"

"Insolence" Forge cried from the corner he was working.

"Oi Harry, tell this greedy little bugger I’m not giving him another packet of ice mice" the other one said gesturing at Mushu, who was perched on top of a cabinet.

"It was your idea to give him treats for some experiments" Harry shrugged, getting up he walked towards them lazily.

The redhead stared at him for a moment "10 ice mice or you can piss off" he turned towards the creature

"18" the creature hissed, flying on top of Harry's head. The boy parroted it to the twin.

"12"

"18" Harry parroted

"14 and that's final offer"

"16 and you throw in two chocolate frogs" Harry relayed the message

"15 and a chocolate frog"

"That stick you're eating too and I won't knock over the ingredients" Mushu hissed aristocratically from the top of his head, eyeing the licorice wand Gred was nibbling on.

As he flew from the brunette's messy hair Harry, moved along the table to see what Forge was working on. He peered over to see an arithmancy equation covering several sheets of parchment.

"Say" he asked slowly "how long would it take for that color spell to fade??"

"The one I taught you yesterday??"

The dark haired boy nodded

"3-4 days, why?" frowning the older teen corrected scratched out some part of equation

"I accidently cast it on Draco" the boy muttered

The redhead stared at him for a moment and then laughing, roaring more like.

"Oi, Gred get the camera" he managed to string the words between his laughter.

"I can't let you in the dungeons" Harry was scandalized "professor Snape will kill me"

"Such innocence" Forge said dramatically, patting him like he was a puppy.

"Oh Har Har" Gred was back with the camera "I think it's time we showed you the-"

"-Secret to-"

"-Success as-"

"Resident pranksters"

"Say cheese" was all the warning he got before the flash went off and Harry was blinded by a bright light.

Harry glared in the general direction, dark spots still dancing in front of his eyes. A hand dragged him towards the exit and from corner of his eye, Harry saw the other twin pull out a bit of old parchment.

\-------------------------

Harry quietly peered inside the dark room, the only light the in the room came from the window that showed the underneath of black lake. Seeing as Draco wasn't there, the twins plan to lure the teen out under the prospect of a counter charm must've worked. He walked past Draco's bed and saw Mushu nibbling on ice mice. He yelped as a tripping jinx caught him.

"Traitor" he hissed at the reptile.

"The pink boy promised me a month of ice mice" came an indifferent reply, after which the lizard went back to nibbling on his treat.

"Wha-" he turned around to see Draco standing over him. It was a good thing he didn't get up because he didn't think he could manage to stand up at the moment.

"Your hair" the boy was clutching his stomach, laughing hard "oh my god, you hair-it's-its"

"Don’t say it" Draco warned

"PINK" Harry roared, Draco must’ve tried to finite the spell.

 

That was it, Draco raised his wand but he couldn't bring himself to hex the boy as he'd originally planned. Annoyed, he may have thrown a tickling hex or two at the smaller teen, but it, offcourse, didn't have the same amount satisfaction. So he threw himself at the laughing figure on the floor, tickling the boy every which way.

"I shall be avenged" he cried out dramatically, and then he was laughing too.

"MERCY, I plead mercy"

"There is no mercy for your atrocity towards my hair" the older teen had the other boy pinned beneath him, a hand holding Harry's above his head while other kept tickling.

"Maybe we can make a compromise" the smaller teen wiggled beneath him.

Draco could feel the brunette's breath on his lips and if he didn't know better, he'd say that last statement was entirely too suggestive, given their positions. His hands went slack for a moment, distracted by the thoughts of Harry in the same position, sans clothes; the smaller teen used to opportunity to escape from beneath him and run for his life.

"You are dead meat, potter" Draco chased after the boy, aiming stinging hexes at the boy's backside.

\-------------------------

Severus heard something scrape on the table and looked up. The first thing he noticed was the enormous fruit cake that would be enough to feed him for few days, the next thing he noticed was mop of black hair behind the towering block of cake. He raised an eyebrow and gave the boy his trademark look.

"I made cake" came a nervous reply

Any other time Severus would've commented on the display of superior skills at stating the obvious, but he noticed the boy tugging on his hair nervously and decided now wasn't the time. Keeping a finger in the book to keep track of the page, he closed it and turned towards the boy.

"Are you still mad at me?" the boy fidgeted under his stare

Severus sighed. "I'm not mad at you", he was mad at himself, for the sight for the boy fidgeting made him want to break things. He was mad at himself, for the panic the spread through his heart when he couldn't find the boy in the great hall, for letting the boy get too close. He sighed, but he supposed it wasn't Harry's fault. He was taken by surprise by a hug, as the scrawny boy threw himself at him.

"Thank you" he heard the muttered words and huffed.

His arms tightened around the boy for a moment before letting go "as long as you realize the danger you put yourself in with those half-witted actions" somehow he couldn't bring the barb into his voice. Severus Snape doling out hugs… Merlin, Cissa would have a field day if she knew. The boy nodded and scampered towards door, taking with him a large piece of cake from the table Severus hadn't noticed before. He pinned the teen with a questioning glare.

"It’s for Draco" the boy blushed "I accidently turned his hair pink" he muttered.

"That reminds me" Severus managed to say it with a straight face "tell him to report to me in an hour. Prefect business"

\------------------------

"I come in peace" Harry cried dramatically as he entered the dorms "I bear cake"

Draco stared at the large piece of fruit cake that was set in front of him. It looked very...simple, nonetheless if what he heard was true, Harry's desserts infiltrated Sev's diet on a regular basis. It didn't even have any topping, he noticed as he broke a piece and lifted it to his mouth. The elves at manor made the most deli-, oh it was good. It was better than good; it was fruity, nutty heaven. He picked the rest of the cake with his hand and bit a large chunk of it; his mother would squawk if she saw such a mannerless display.

"So am I forgiven?"

"Get the rest of the cake and we'll talk" he grunted in reply.

"I gave it to professor Snape" the boy scrunched his eyebrows as if remembering something "oh, he asked you to report him in an hour"

So the news had reached Sev and he was going to have to go in despite the fact that any 'prefect business' wasn't due until next week but between the cake and the cute scrunching expression on Harry's face Draco found it difficult to hold it on him.

\-------------------------------

Draco gave furtive glances at the fading blue strands of Harry's hair. The boy was buried in some book, as usual. With Christmas hols approaching, he and Granger threw themselves at the books. Once they entered the library, they were like dogs with bones. Being on slightly more friendly terms with Granger after the infirmary incident, Draco had tried to attend one of the library sessions. Needless to say it was utter madness. There furious scribbling on parchment and mountains of books from behind which Granger and Harry argued about theories like they were ready to hex each other’s bits off.

It wasn't fair really; Draco had sneaked up on the boy, charming his strands of his hair blue. But it just made the git look more...exotic.

The boy suddenly slid off the chair, muttering about meeting 'Gred and Forge'. The blonde scowled, recently the brunette had taken to spending increasing amount of time merlin knows where with the twin terrors, as if there weren't enough things hogging his Harry time already. He took his Nimbus 2001, a birthday gift from Sev out of his trunk along with a practice snitch.

The weather was nice and the blonde was already in a better mood by the time he reached the Quidditch pitch. Taking out the practice snitch from his pocket he tapped it with his wand, muttering a charm to let it fly free without restrictions. Counting till twenty to let it get a head start, Draco hopped onto his broom and kicked off the ground. After an hour or so, it was late and the snitch was taunting him, flying just out of his reach. He could always _accio_ it, but where's the fun in that? Grinning, he shot after the ball glinting in the fading sunlight. He followed it higher and higher, flying towards the edge of the pitch and then suddenly leaned forward to get a tiny additional burst of speed. That did the trick, the little golden ball fluttered in his hand, and the blonde looked triumphantly at the scene below. From there he could all the way down to the Black Lake. His smile only lasted until he spotted familiar mop of black hair besides identical redheaded menaces. He quickly cast an omnicular charm and immediately wished he hadn't. The brunette was practically sitting in both of their laps as the three of them buried themselves in some musty old parchment. One of the redheads whispered something in Harry's ear and the black haired teen yelped blushing furiously. A sudden spark of jealousy gripped his heart and the blonde shot back to ground, shoving the snitch carelessly into his pocket.

He felt positively murderous as he stormed into dungeons. Sensing his mood most of the first years scampered off quickly so he assigned detentions of couple of lazy sods he found in the common room. Feeling a bit better, he plopped himself on a couch by Pansy.

"Alright, what did he do this time?" she piped

Draco threw her a dark look

"Don’t get your knickers in a twist darling" she said, smoothly twirling a red lock of hair (Courtesy of Harry).

"Sod fucking off" he stomped to his dormitory, making a show of slamming his door.

After a long shower, during which he did not think of the little git he threw himself on the bed and deciding to forgo dinner the blonde tried to sleep.

\-------------------------

Draco woke up with an armful of Harry. The boy had somehow managed to wiggle in during the night. Feeling a bit petulant he buried his nose in Harry's hair and took in the scent. The boy smelled like green apples (hair potion brewed by Sev, no doubt), ink, parchment and something that was entirely Harry. Draco found he quite liked that smell. Wrapping his hand around the boy he nosed a strand of soft hair and inhaled. The blonde froze when the boy stirred and moaned a bit.

"Stop it Gred"

That was it. Draco wanted to flip the boy right there and kiss him until he couldn't remember any name other than his. Squashing down the ridiculous urge, the he took a quick shower and walked down to the great hall for breakfast. It was early and there were a few students present, while some teachers put up tinsel and festive decorations. A sudden plan unfurled in his mind and Draco grinned as he sat down for breakfast...


End file.
